


A Tactical Machine

by Ryeaugla



Series: Super Smash Chronicles [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Super Smash Brothers, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Body Image, Body Modification, Death Threats, F/M, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Obvious Trap the Heroes Fall Into Anyway, Robots, Senseless Murder, Strategy & Tactics, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 16:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5056393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last person to find out about Robin's fate was the Chrom from his own timeline. The last person to find out about Robin's new fate as a Mechon is Chrom, as well. Shulk and Robin go together to Ylisse to tell Chrom about the tactician, but it seems things aren't nearly as peaceful in post-war Ylisse as everybody would have hoped it would be following Grima's defeat at the Exalt's hands. When the Queen of Ylisse disappears, it's up to Robin to lead the Shepherds once again in order to rescue her. However, how will Robin fare with commanding an army like he used to, considering he's a Mechon now?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Machine's Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin's back to fighting in the tournament, but it soon becomes clear that he's got some major problems to deal with, all revolving around his new Mechon body. What can and will be done about them?

" **Game!** " A loud voice boomed through the entire arena. " **The winner is... Robin!** "

"I'm always three steps ahead!" The white haired male announced proudly as he spun around with his Levin Sword sparkling. A short fanfare played to signify his victory. He had just come out of his very first Smash match since becoming a Mechon, defeating Peach in a one on one match. Thanks to Master Hand's magic, he was able to battle as he normally did before being turned into part machine, and fighting like he did in the past seemed to reinvigorate the tactician and steer him to victory. After the match finally ended, Peach strolled over to her opponent and gave him a serene smile. The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom extended her hand to Robin, who promptly shook it while smiling back. She then spoke up after a short giggle.

"You fought very well~" She congratulated. "This was your first Smash match with that body, wasn't it? I wouldn't have been able to tell, really." The white haired male chuckled before putting his hands behind his back and looking off to the side.

"You really think I fought as well as I did back when I was fully human?" He said, looking down again at his Mechon body. "I'm sure there's plenty of work I still need to do to get back into shape completely, though..."

"I think the audience thought you were great too!" Peach continued. "All eyes were on you! They probably really like you fighting with your new body. You should definitely love your body more, as everybody else thinks it's wonderful."

"Everybody else thinks it's wonderful..." Robin repeated, staring at his metal hands. "Somehow I doubt that's actually the case..." After a sigh, he finally started moving to leave the results room. Upon opening the door, however, the tactician was greeted with the sight of a brightly smiling Heir to the Monado. Even if nobody else liked Robin's machine body (despite that not being the case), Shulk loved him regardless. The taller male practically pounced upon his metal friend after he got out of the doorway, wrapping his arms completely around Robin's abdomen and unintentionally pinioning his arms to his side.

"I'm so glad you won!" Shulk cheered in Robin's ears. "You did great out there! Oh, you should have heard the whispers in the audience when you appeared before them looking like you do now. Everybody was a bit skeptical of your new look, but the fact that you held your own against Peach proved to them that your looks don't matter." Shulk then readjusted his grip so that his hands now rest upon the piece of flesh that still remained over the mage's bosom, making sure that Robin could actually feel his hands. A gasp found its way out of Robin's mouth as he felt the other's warm hands pressed against his skin. "In fact, I think you've gathered some new fans from how cool you look now~" He then added. "A cyborg magician with horns on his head and mechanical limbs? It makes you stand out at the very least." The ivory haired tactician sighed with disgust.

"...They're probably just gawking at me because I look weird." He grunted. "They don't really care about my body at all..." Shulk shook his head.

"Robin, this tournament has a plethora of strange looking competitors already." The seer answered. "I mean, there's everything from talking animals to giant turtle dragons, and several humanoids who aren't human at all. I mean, I'm one of said non-humans, what with being a Homs instead. I really don't think anybody cares all that much about the fact that you have a machine body now. You're hardly the oddest looking competitor, after all." This seemed to be enough to make Robin feel a bit better.

"You have a point." Robin relaxed back into the grasp of the taller male, letting Shulk just gently hold onto him for a moment. "We should head back to our room, though..."

"Huh? How come?"

"Because we're cuddling in the middle of a hallway, you silly." With that, Robin reached up and flicked Shulk gently on the nose. The blond male quickly afterward raised his hand and rubbed at the spot where he got flicked, muttering something under his breath about being hit by a metal hand. The tactician somehow caught wind and his mood soured right away. "...Oh right..." He muttered dejectedly. "I'm a robot now... I can't do things like that so thoughtlessly. I don't really know my own strength anymore..." Shulk quickly shook his head to attempt to calm the cyborg he was holding onto down.

"You can't be expected to know everything about your new body immediately." He cooed soothingly. "It'll take time to get fully used to things. Besides, you didn't hurt me that badly anyway." Shulk then returned the favor by flicking Robin's nose in retribution. That elicited a short chuckle from the ivory haired male before he continued.

"Perhaps we should finally get out of the hallway now, first and foremost." Nodding with agreement, Shulk let go of Robin and took one of his metal hands, leading him back to a room that had a light purple Falchion and a magenta Monado insignia affixed to it - just as it used to be prior to the incident that had resulted in Robin's Mechonization in the first place.

* * *

Early the next day, Robin had stepped out of the room for a short period of time in order to get the mail for both him and Shulk (the Heir to the Monado lent his boyfriend the key to his mailbox in order to allow him to do the deed for him). When he came back, however, the tactician's skin (or what was left of it) was almost the same tint as his hair. This of course was cause for concern to Shulk, who immediately rose from his desk and walked over to provide comfort. Arms quickly wrapped around the smaller male's mechanical body, trying to get Robin to calm down and explain what was going on. The terrified tactician said nothing, but he held out a sheet of thin metal for Shulk to take from him. The seer's stomach lurched, as he clearly remembered getting a letter much like the one Robin was pushing in his direction. It was the invitation for the duel with Obsidian Face - a duel he would have died in had he put the letter away properly... A duel in which Robin would have directly contributed to Shulk's death within had it not been for the Metroid hunter and the Lightning Mouse Pokemon.

Still, Shulk couldn't help but take the sheet from Robin and look it over. What he discovered written upon it was enough to make his skin turn pale white as well.

> To Robin,
> 
> You have greatly disappointed me. I found out what happened to Obsidian Face. I had hoped that you had fallen victim to the explosion, but today's Smash match proved to me that you're still alive. As you are a soldier of Mechonis now, you will do what I want you to or else I will be forced to take action. Your mission is to kill the Heir to the Monado and bring his sword back to Mechonis. If you return to Mechonis without the Monado, you will be destroyed.

"Dear gods..." Shulk's voice was shaky after he put down the letter. "You're actually being blackmailed into killing me? Just who even is the guy who sent this?" Once again he picked up the letter and looked over both sides of it in order to find some kind of confirmation as to whom it came from, but there was nothing. They didn't sign the letter, nor was there any other kind of distinguishing feature. Robin looked visibly uncomfortable as he stared at his hands.

"...Can that silver man really control me all the way from Mechonis or something?" He asked shakily, memory finally clicking back to the moments between his revival and assimilation into Obsidian Face's system. The mage could barely remember his face, but definitely not his name - did he even mention it at all during the whole time he was imprisoned on Mechonis, anyway? "He's clearly watching my Smash matches... What if he takes over and makes me brutally hurt somebody during a tournament match? I can't fight anymore knowing I might snap..." Chocolate colored eyes darted up to Shulk's face before he continued. "And the alternative... I couldn't possibly murder you, Shulk... You're the only one keeping me sane while I have this dumb body!" It looked like the white haired male was about to cry, and Shulk immediately tried to calm the other down upon realizing this.

"Robin, settle down..." He stated in a calm voice, reaching out to cup the smaller male's face into his hands, seeing as that was one part of the Mechonized tactician's body that still had nerve endings in it. "You're not going to get controlled during a Smash match, nor do you need to kill me. I promised I would take care of you, after all, even if it means opposing all of Mechonis to protect you. It's my fault you're like this to begin with." Robin's eyes darted to the ground. He didn't like it when Shulk blamed himself for what had happened to the tactician - after all, he was convinced it was his own fault, as he was the one who got careless with sneaking out to Bionis in the first place just for an insignificant gift that he never ended up giving in the end. The only thing Robin ended up giving was an endless amount of misery to everybody close to him, not only with his apparent death, but his dumb new body. Even worse was the fact that the tactician could possibly end up causing even more agony if he lost control of his body to the silver man who created it.

"...I should go give this letter to Master Hand and use it as an excuse to resign from the tournament..." Robin pushed himself gently out of Shulk's hands as he turned to leave the room. "I don't deserve to be here anymore. I'm a burden and a threat to everybody with this stupid body..." The blond seer was quick to grab the cyborg's arm before he could depart, however, briskly shaking his head once Robin spun around to acknowledge him.

"Robin, you can't resign from the tournament." Shulk said with an intense seriousness. "If you go back to Ylisse and stay there, you'll be dead within a month. Master Hand even said so. Nobody on Ylisse has any kind of knowledge on how to take care of your mechanical body!" Robin snapped his arm back from the Monado wielder, shaking his head.

"I'm better off dead - I should be dead to begin with!" He barked back. "What would you think if I had legitimately hurt Peach yesterday during that match? Hmm? What do you think everybody in the Mushroom Kingdom would think? I'd get stomped on by Mario before you could even say 'here we go'! I'm burdening everybody by being here. Just let me go shrivel up and die on my own world where the silver man won't be able to do as much harm if he takes over my body..." Shulk wasn't about to let Robin run off and let himself die, but he had to come up with something fast to stop the other. Gods, if only he had the same kind of genius idea hatching prowess Robin possessed, he'd have probably cooked up an idea to stop the other from going to Ylisse.

...Or maybe he didn't need to stop Robin from going to Ylisse. An idea finally found its way to Shulk's head as he hurried out and stopped Robin again, this time with a smile on his face. "I have an idea!" He chirped, placing both of his hands on the tactician's metal shoulders. "You can go to Ylisse, but it'll be a planned vacation from the tournament! Scratch that, we'll go to Ylisse together so that I can make sure your body doesn't fall apart on you. Get your mind off the stresses here at the mansion and just relax on your own world with me. How does that sound?" Robin frowned.

"Shulk, you know as well as I do that there's no Ether on my world. You'd probably shrivel up and die before I do, especially if we plan to take any kind of extended vacation to Ylisse..." Shulk took one hand off the tactician's shoulders and moved it up so that it wrapped around the bright red sword that was affixed to his back - the Monado.

"I'll be fine as long as I have the Monado." The blond answered. "It maintains the Ether in my body as long as it's attached to my back. I won't lose enough Ether to feel any kind of negative effect on my body for a while if I have the Monado. The only reason I was in such bad shape last time we were there was because those bastards got a leg up on us and I lost my sword for a while. This time we'll be a lot more careful though. Really, it'll all be fine..." Shulk tried to reassure Robin with a smile, but he was having none of it.

"This is a ridiculous idea..." He muttered. "You should stay here and continue participating in tournament battles. At least Reflet can be backup for me when I'm gone." Mentioning the female tactician seemed to be enough to start another protest.

"You said you weren't going to disappoint Reflet again!" Shulk gesticulated as he spoke. "She doesn't want you dying again, and I'm sure the same can be said for Chrom and Lucina. And speaking of Chrom, does he even know that you're alive? ...The one from your realm, I mean." Robin sighed and hung his head.

"He should know if he's been watching the tournament, you know..."

"You should still go say hello and reassure him you're all right. Chrom was the last person to find out about your apparent death, after all." The tactician rolled his eyes.

"Shulk, you're asking me to say hello to one of my close friends before I resign myself to my doom again within the month. Doesn't something sound a bit awkward about that to you?" Shulk started to shake his head, but then he stopped and put a hand on his chin.

"...Well yes, that sounds odd, but I said I'm coming with you to Ylisse, and I'm not changing my mind. If you're leaving for Ylisse, I am too. Now, what's it going to be? Either leave the mansion with me or stay here. The decision is yours." Robin could see the determination in Shulk's ringed cerulean eyes. He wasn't kidding when he said that his mind was made up. The Monado wielder was going to stay by the side of the tactician no matter what. Sighing with defeat, the ivory haired male hung his head again and shook it dejectedly.

"All right. Let's go on vacation to Ylisse. I just want to spend some time getting my mind off that threat from Mechonis, and I'd be better off doing so if I just left the mansion entirely." The blond Homs beamed as he took both of Robin's metal hands.

"In that case, let's go find Master Hand and tell him we're both going to take a break from the tournament for a while~"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoopsie, I posted this chapter before I meant to. Ah well, I'll stick with it, as I got to the end of that sequence. 2608 words, so it's not that short either. Couple notes:
> 
> 1\. If it's not obvious (though it should be), the 'silver man' Robin is referring to is Egil.
> 
> 2\. The sequence of events that Shulk refers to in which he lost the Monado is none other than what happened in Desert Storm.


	2. A Machine's Mishap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin and Shulk have come out to Ylisse for their brief respite from the mansion, but all is not well in the halidom. They unintentionally get into a bit of trouble as well before actually getting to see Chrom. How will they fare with that? And what's wrong in the supposedly peaceful halidom of Ylisse?

The next day, the two young men had warped out to Ylisse. Master Hand didn't seem to have any qualms with the two departing for some time, especially when Robin showed the floating glove the message he had received from Mechonis. Sure, he was a little miffed that Robin had only participated in one match before deciding to head out and take a hiatus from the tournament, but after seeing the threat, the hand knew that it was in his best interest to let the two take some time off. And that was why the two were now in Robin's world, having appeared outside of Ylisstol, the capital of the halidom. Fortunately, it didn't seem like what had happened during their previous excursion to Ylisse had occurred this time, with their destination being forcibly changed by Grima in an attempt to capture the seer, the tactician, or both of them. Perhaps that meant that things were going to be easier this time.

Unfortunately, upon walking into Ylisstol proper, it was clear that this wasn't the case. The general mood of the collective of people was tense, people whispering to themselves and just being all around on edge. To make things worse, people began to stare at Shulk and Robin as they started passing through the town. Soon it became clear that they were specifically staring at Robin, and he threw his hood up over his head quickly when he realized it. The people were staring at his metal horns and he knew it. Seeing as the horns were an extension of the metal spine that was installed in his body, there was no easy way to remove them without replacing it with some kind of different part - a part they didn't have. Therefore, the ivory haired male had to deal with the protruding pieces of steel sticking out on the sides of his face. Thankfully, the hood helped to disguise the metal horns to some extent, but the damage was already done to Robin's psyche.

Of course, more astute individuals continued to stare with added tension. Things were still pretty strained between Ylisse and the neighboring theocracy of Plegia. And the colors of the cloak Robin always wore were identical to those found on the Plegian flag. People these days were a lot more aware of this fact, and so angry stares persisted. Robin felt like sprinting out of town and away from the prying eyes that were judging him, but Shulk's grasp was firm around his hand. The Heir to the Monado wasn't going to let his friend bolt so easily.

However, that meant that he was going to have to deal with whatever the two men that were approaching had to say to the tactician, and, from the looks on their faces, it wasn't going to be very pleasant to listen to.

"Hey, what gives?" One of the men said, deliberately knocking into Robin's shoulder. The jostling was enough to knock the hood off his head, revealing not only his snow white hair, but the metal horns attached to the back of his head once more. Upon having his visage revealed once more, Robin blushed pretty hard and lowered his face, trying to make himself as small as possible. The man continued, smiling darkly at what he was seeing. "Oh, so not only are you a Plegian, but you're a freak as well!"

"A Plegian freak!" The other man added in, making Robin even more uncomfortable. His hand curled even tighter around Shulk's, almost painfully so. The Homs grunted with discomfort. He was sure that if this continued, the tactician would end up breaking his hand, not even realizing his own strength due to the fact that his limb was made of metal. Still, even if Robin wasn't threatening to snap his bones with his powerful grip, the blond would have spoken up anyway.

"Knock it off!" He yelled, getting both men to look at him and stop snickering at Robin's unique appearance for a moment. "You don't know anything about him! You have no idea why he's here or why he looks the way he does! Now, if you would kindly get out of our way, we have somewhere to be..." And with that, Shulk pushed by the men with Robin in tow. The tactician felt really glad that Shulk stood up for him like that, and that any sign of the tension in their relationship from about a month ago was not present here any longer. He needed to focus on actually getting to Ylisstol Castle, however. While still walking along beside Shulk, Robin threw his hood up once again to make himself stand out less in the crowd. Between hiding his mechanical appearance for the most part and Shulk not wishing to speak with anybody else about how Robin was dressed in Plegian robes, they made their way to the castle fairly quick.

* * *

Once there, however, things took a turn for the worse. Before the two could set foot in the castle, two guards put up their lances in a cross formation, effectively blocking passage in. Seeing as this was the castle at last, Robin finally flipped off his hood so that the guards could see who he was. The two men exchanged looks with one another before finally speaking up.

"...What the heck are you supposed to be?" The first of the two guards asked. "You kinda look like Grima with that dumb headband on." The comparison to Grima made Robin shrink away a little. He really did not enjoy being compared to the dragon that had nearly destroyed his life, after all. The second guard continued where the first left off.

"You think this is some kind of a joke, Plegian scum?" He said, stepping forward and roughly grabbing one of the metal horns on the tactician's head. "Give me your stupid headband and get lost!" He was trying to yank the horns right off Robin's head. Seeing as they were attached to a part of his body that still had nerve endings, the horns being yanked on really hurt, causing him to cry out in pain and try to push the guard off him. "What the? Did you glue them to your head or something! Give it up!"

"No! I can't do that! Stop it!" Robin cried out, still trying to get the larger man to let go of him. At this rate, he thought he was going to have the metal pieces forcibly torn off his head, which was going to hurt immensely. As a result, his eyes blinked shut for a second before opening once more, having changed color from their usual chocolate brown to a blood red. " _ **THAT HURTS!**_ " He then flipped the guard, heavy armor and all, onto his back out of seemingly nowhere. The tactician's Levin Sword quickly came out of his robes afterward while the other guard brandished his lance toward the crazed machine man.

Before either of the knights could be killed, however, Shulk immediately grabbed the mage and pulled him off, Mechon weight and all. He wrapped his arms around the other's metal limbs, trying to hold him back to the best of his ability. "Stop it, Robin!" The Homs yelled, slowly losing his grip on the other. The tactician really was stronger than him now, that much was clear. Still, the seer tried to hang on as best as he could. Thankfully, before the ivory haired male could slip out of Shulk's grasp and attack, his eyes flickered back to the normal brown hue and he got a hold of himself once more.

"...What in Naga's name?" He asked, looking around at the aftermath of the situation, quickly realizing that he was being held back by Shulk. The look in the eyes of the downed knight that had tried to tear the horns off his head was one of utter horror, while the other knight was slowly lowering his lance. Everything was adding up pretty quickly. "...Oh no... Did I actually..."

"No, Robin, I stopped you from hurting them." Shulk consoled Robin, still holding onto him. The knight that wasn't laying on his back spoke up just then.

"Wait a second, you said 'Robin', right?" He finally withdrew his lance. "Who exactly ARE you two, anyway?" Robin was still beating himself up internally for nearly impaling the knight on his sword, and so Shulk spoke up in his stead.

"That's correct, you're speaking to the High Deliverer, the Grandmaster Tactician of Ylisse, Robin." He answered. "I am a close friend of his, and my name is Shulk. We came here to speak to Chrom. He should know both of us. We will wait here for you to tell Chrom of our arrival, if need be." It wasn't like Shulk was lying, and so he just waited for a response.

"...Very well... Shulk." The knight answered, walking over to his companion and helping him off the ground. "We will inform Chrom of your arrival. If he does not believe your story, we will have to arrest you for attacking royal guards. Is that clear?" Shulk's stomach did a flip as they were given an ultimatum. Even if they fled right now, it would be very easy to track the two of them down again, considering their very obvious strange appearances. Shulk did not wish to take the Monado off his back and Robin had his Mechon body, after all. Hopefully Chrom would ensure they didn't get in trouble. The guards then disappeared, off to find the Exalt and inform him of the arrival of the two.

It was at this time that Robin took the opportunity to throw himself into Shulk's arms, crying his eyes out into the Homs' thick, woolly sweater. "Oh gods..." He sobbed. "I can't believe I nearly killed that guard over that! My Attack Mode activated again just now, didn't it? If Chrom doesn't believe us because I'm supposed to be dead, we're both going to be arrested for a crime that's punishable with death! We likely won't see daylight ever again!" Shulk too was nervous, considering that they had come here to reveal to Chrom that Robin wasn't dead and instead they were now hinging upon whether the Exalt actually believed their story. He didn't want to reveal that fear to the smaller male, however, and so he just gently wrapped his arms around the other's metal body. Right now, the Homs didn't care if the mage could feel his comforting hug or not. It was the thought that counted anyway.

"Don't worry..." Shulk whispered into Robin's ears. "Chrom knows me. Even if we're not exactly acquaintances, he knows that I'm a close friend of yours. He'll trust us, I'm sure of it. Now, let's get ready for them to return." There was a slight movement near the blond's shoulder as Robin nodded his head, finally plucking himself out of Shulk's grasp and standing up straight next to the taller Homs in anticipation for the knights coming back.

Not long later, the two guards returned. They were quite pleased to see that the two hadn't run off upon being told that they were possibly going to be arrested. They probably thought the two were either idiots or had utmost faith in Chrom. The smug smile that one of the guards had upon seeing the young men made Shulk gulp nervously. Did Chrom really reject his story? A moment later, Shulk was convinced this was the case as the guards came along and slapped pairs of handcuffs on both of them. Robin knew he could easily break the chain links that held his hands together, considering his arms were made of tougher metal than the binds were, but he didn't want to make a fuss just yet. He needed to hear why this was happening.

"Well, the Exalt's not sure about you two." The guard who had been brandishing his spear toward Robin before finally spoke up. "He wants to meet you two before casting final judgment. Chrom's been a bit... on edge lately, after all. If you are who you say you are, you'll be released. If not, we'll escort you to the dungeon. This is just a precaution for now." After hearing the reason, Shulk felt a little better about this and sighed deeply.

"...All right. I can accept this." He stated, looking over at Robin. The ivory haired male turned and the two matched gazes for a moment before the tactician answered as well.

"As can I." He replied calmly, nodding his head. "Please, escort us to Chrom." The guards were a bit surprised that they were acting so calm about the situation, but they weren't going to object if the young men weren't. And so they all headed into Ylisstol Castle to meet with the Exalt.

* * *

"On your knees, you two." The guards ordered once they were right outside the throne room. The guard who had nearly been killed by Robin stayed next to the two while the one who was pointing his spear at the tactician hurried forward to get the attention of the Exalt. Sure enough, a familiar blue haired individual came into view, staring silently at the two kneeling figures with a look of shock on his face. He sounded utterly flabbergasted when he finally spoke up though.

"...Robin? Is that really you?" He took several steps forward. "Come, both of you, stand up. There's no reason you two should be on your knees." Shulk and Robin exchanged a glance before they rose to their feet almost simultaneously. "You two guards, unbind them at once. They are exactly who they claimed to be." The knights were slightly shocked, but if Chrom ordered them to let the two go free, an order was an order. A moment after the chains on Robin's arms were undone, Chrom threw himself at the tactician, hugging him tightly. "Oh gods, when I heard that you had supposedly died, you have no idea how hurt I was! But here you are, perfectly... o... kay?" It had just occurred to the Exalt that something looked a bit weird with his tactician, and he backed up to get a better look, fully taking the smaller male's mechanical body, even if most of it was covered up by his robe. "Gods! What happened to you?" Robin looked down, prompting Shulk to cut in for him.

"Well, what you heard about Robin being dead was, at one point, actually true." He replied. "He had gone to my world to find something and ended up getting ambushed by Mechon. They cut him down and brought his dead body back to Mechonis. There, he was given the body he has now in order to pilot a large Mechon that I ended up destroying."

"...It's stupid, isn't it?" Robin cut in after that. "This body is stupid. I hate it. I don't want to be a Mechon." Chrom crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow at his friend.

"You're still Robin, right?" He replied, then uncrossing his hands almost as quickly as he had done so in the first place and taking one of the mage's hands into his own, which prompted Robin to look up into the Exalt's eyes. "You're still my friend as well as my trusted tactician. And in these trying times, I'm really going to need you to do some of that tactician magic you're so well known for. I mean, you can still do that, right?"

"...Wait a second." Shulk added a moment later. "Master Hand didn't restrict this world because it was supposed to be peaceful. What exactly do you need Robin to help you come up with strategies for if the war is supposed to be over?" Chrom immediately frowned and turned around so that he was no longer looking at Shulk and Robin before taking a deep breath.

"...The Queen of Ylisse... My wife... has been kidnapped." He said sternly. Both of the young men standing behind the Exalt took a step back in shock.

"Sumia's been kidnapped?!" Robin snapped a second later. "How in Naga's name did that happen?!"

"I'm not entirely sure." Chrom had an immense amount of regret in his voice. "One moment she's taking care of little Cynthia, and in the next... gone. Thankfully both Cynthia and Lucina are all right. I would be devastated if anything happened to either of them."

"Dear Bionis, that's awful!" Shulk shook his head in disbelief. "There's absolutely nothing cluing you into your wife's disappearance, though? No traces left behind of her kidnapping?" Chrom turned back around to face the others.

"We got a letter several days later in hastily scratched text claiming that they want a bunch of money in exchange for Sumia's safe return. A bunch of money we don't have..." The blue haired lord shook his head. "That's why we're trying to fight to bring her back. We've figured out that she's somewhere in Plegia and we're trying to organize a small task force to go in and get her out of there without creating a large fuss with the Plegians not involved in this mess." He then turned his head to look at the mechanical mage. "And that's where you come in, Robin. We need your tactical genius again to get us out of this situation with as few casualties as possible. Originally I was going to entrust somebody else to it, but now that I know you're alive and you're here by my side, I'll ask you instead." Chrom bowed his head in respect. "Robin, will you please lead the Shepherds once again to save my wife?" The ivory haired male took his hand back and looked at it briefly before answering.

"You don't even care that I could possibly hurt you or your troops if things go badly?" He objected. "I'm part machine now, Chrom. I clearly have no control of myself, as your guards here can testify."

"His eyes turned blood red and he tried to murder me!" The one guard chimed in, immediately receiving a glare from both Robin and Chrom a second later.

"I still trust you." The Exalt added as he directed his eyes back to the smaller male. "I've trusted you since the moment we met. You've very rarely let me down. I know you can get Sumia back."

"W-well... I have been itching to exercise my tactical muscles... For good, at least..." His thoughts quickly went back to the torture and manipulation that Obsidian Face put him through to get him to create strategies for that terrible robot. Just then, Shulk stepped forward and genuflected, raising his head a second later. It was enough to snap Robin out of his funk, at the very least.

"I will lend my sword to your army as well." He offered, looking straight into Chrom's eyes. "I am an experienced swordsman myself, as my being a Smasher can probably attest to. Not only that, but I have the power to see the future." The blue haired male's eyebrows raised upon hearing this claim.

"Really?" He said. "You're an oracle? I wouldn't have pegged you as one, honestly. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a soothsayer on our side as well." Robin, on the other hand, wasn't as easily impressed. He had a frown on his face when Shulk mentioned his visions.

"Shulk, you know that your visions have limitations..." He chimed in. "Not only do you have no control whether or not you get one, but did you forget that this world doesn't have any of your Ether on it? If you remember the last time we were here, you attempted to see a vision that would have prevented you from being captured by the Plegians had you properly been able to figure out what was going on, but the only things you could see were yourself and a faint outline of me. You won't be able to see anything of value here on Ylisse because nobody has any Ether." This realization caused the Homs to frown and scratch the back of his head, finally returning to his feet.

"...You have a point..." He said. "I'll just provide another sword to the cause, then. My apologies for getting your hopes up, Sir Chrom..."

"Please, just Chrom will do, Shulk." The Exalt answered. "I'm not one for formalities. I'm a bit disappointed to hear that you can't really help us with your foresight powers, but I still appreciate you offering to help when you barely even know me." The blond swordsman chuckled a little.

"Well, you did pick Robin up off the side of the road despite not knowing anything about him way back when, or so I heard." He said with a smile. "Had you never done that, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet a truly amazing person." The white haired tactician immediately blushed as he heard the Homs gush about him. Chrom couldn't help but laugh for a moment before continuing.

"All right, I understand where you're coming from." He replied. "It's good to have both of you helping out. We'll be organizing our troops to head out to Plegia soon. Until then, you can stay in one of our guest rooms here at the palace until everybody's ready to go." He then looked over at the two knights that were still standing nearby. "You two, lead these young men to one of the unoccupied guest bedrooms and help them feel comfortable. They are honored guests of the Exalt, after all." Both Shulk and Robin thanked the blue haired king before being led away to another part of the castle in order to get settled in. Who knew when they would be called upon to serve in the Shepherds, after all?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3635 words. Yep, if it wasn't obvious from the tags, for those of you who were still curious about Chrom's wife is in Robin's universe (and didn't read the commentary on Obsidian Chains with Ginta, whoops), it's Sumia. And now for a couple of quick notes:
> 
> 1\. At this point, I think I've referenced all of the other stories in this series I've written thus far at least once now. XD Desert Storm's come up a couple times, TBOatDD and Obsidian Chains are tightly interconnected and extremely obvious, and now Robin's thought back to what happened in Black Dragon, White Soul. Yep, that's still canon to this story line despite being a side fic.
> 
> 2\. I'm being intentionally vague about what happened to Sumia. It'll be obvious later. For now, let's just say things aren't as straightforward as Chrom thinks they are.


	3. A Machine's Confidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin is once again put in charge of leading the Shepherds to victory in Chrom's plan to get his wife back with as few battles and casualties as possible. How exactly does he fare with being a tactician once more? Does his Mechon body interfere with being a tactical genius?

A small task force had gathered in the courtyard of Ylisstol Castle with various individuals talking with one another about a variety of topics. Shulk had been ordered to go on ahead into the courtyard with the rest of the recruits that were going to be accompanying him, Robin, and Chrom on their mission to save the queen. He pushed open a door to get to the courtyard and walked out into the clearing where the rest were, trying to examine the members of the group coming with them. Almost immediately his heart sank when he saw a familiar face in the form of one of the men who was bullying Robin yesterday for his strange appearance - specifically the man who had called his friend 'a freak and a Plegian' before his companion (who was right by his side, on further inspection) had chimed in that Robin was 'a Plegian freak'. The men were quick to notice the brightly dressed seer, both sneering at him as they lumbered forward in an attempt to get close and start a conversation.

"Well well, look who we have here~" The larger of the two men began, smirking at Shulk while looking down at him. "I wasn't expecting to see you here today. Where's your friend - that freak? Did he run back home to Plegia crying his eyes out?" The other man laughed callously, prompting the Homs to curl his fists. He didn't like how these men were trash talking about Robin behind his back. However, when Shulk finally spoke, he tried to keep his voice calm.

"...He's still on his way out here." He answered. "Chrom asked him to stay behind for some reason, that's all." Almost immediately the men stopped smirking and giggling and frowned. They now looked like they were ready to bash Shulk's head in, even though he hadn't actually done anything except break some news to them.

"What? You've got to be kidding me!" The smaller man spoke up. "We're not working with some Plegian freak! Those crazy weirdos almost killed us all when they tried to revive the Fell Dragon Grima! We're going to be marching into their territory to save our queen! He's got to be a spy!"

"Don't talk about Robin like that!" Shulk snapped back. "Chrom trusts him, and you should trust him too! He's not a spy and would never betray the Exalt!" Before the men could argue with Shulk, the doors flung open to the courtyard and Chrom stepped out. He was dressed up in a different outfit than he normally had on, actually looking well armored now with a silver breastplate, gauntlets, greaves, and a single pauldron over his left shoulder. There was a golden shield affixed to that same arm as well. He raised his right hand skyward as if to get the attention of everybody present.

"Shepherds!" Chrom called out to the people gathered before him. "You have all gathered here to join me in heading out to Plegia in order to save the queen from danger. We do not know where she has been taken, only that some vagabonds in our neighboring country have her. Our goal is to find my wife without attracting too much attention from people who are not involved with her disappearance. It is for that reason that I entrust our safety to one of my most reliable friends, a great tactician who's led my men in the past to victory in several wars. Please give a warm welcome to the High Deliverer, the Grandmaster Tactician of Ylisse, Robin!" The people started clapping as the white haired male slowly walked out to stand next to Chrom. Instead of wearing his usual robe, the tactician was now wearing a longer robe in dark purple and gold that brushed along the ground as he walked. There was a blue and gold shawl draped over his shoulders held in place by golden epaulets attached to one another by a golden cord. As he stepped next to Chrom, the applause quickly died down and was quickly replaced with whispering.

"He's the High Deliverer?"

"What's with those weird things on his head?"

"That's some weird armor he's wearing under that robe..."

"The colors of that robe... Is he Plegian?"

Those and other little rumors were exchanged between the soldiers gathered as they gawked at the strange appearance of the white haired male.

"What the...?" The tall man who had been pestering Shulk a moment prior cried out loudly upon seeing Robin standing next to Chrom. "You're that Plegian freak! What in Naga's name are you doing standing up there next to our Exalt?! Get out of here!" The volume of the crowd increased as they all started to vocalize their complaints with having Robin be the tactician of the group. Robin shrunk back a step, looking ready to cry. He was on the cusp of running away, but the blue haired male by his side turned and shook his head. There was a slight frown on his face as he spoke up quietly.

"Robin, if you can't control these men here, you won't be able to control them out on the battlefield." Chrom whispered. "I need you as my tactician. That means you have to figure something out here. Come up with a tactic to get everybody under control." That last sentence seemed to be enough to snap Robin out of his melancholy mood. This was just another opportunity for him to prove his prowess with strategy. In spite of all the jeering, the cyborg looked back to the audience, eyes darting from one angry face to another, until he found the one individual who wasn't being vocal in the audience - Shulk. The blond male was just staring back at him with a look of worry on his face. But just the sight of the other seemed to be enough to give the white haired mage an idea. A small smile found its way back to his face as he stepped forward in front of Chrom and took a deep breath.

"Everybody, quiet!" He shouted. "This is unbecoming of troops directly serving under the Exalt of Ylisse! You wouldn't act like this for Chrom, and he's literally right next to me!" Robin gesticulated to the Exalt standing next to him and then quickly dropped his arms. The soldiers quieted down, but they still appeared to be on edge. "Thank you. Now, before you berate me for having horns on my head or having a weird looking body, I want to make one thing clear to all of you: I'm human just like you. My body may be made of metal, but my heart still beats like any one of yours." A hand went to his chest and he held it there for a second. He wasn't able to feel his heart beating due to the fact that he had no nerve endings in his arm, but the symbolic nature of his action was what counted. A few faces softened a little before he continued.

"I bet none of you were aware that an individual who isn't even human stands in our midst today." Thankfully there weren't any Manaketes or Taguels in the crowd, else his statement would have been rendered moot by these obvious individuals who weren't human. People looked around, trying to pick out the non-human in their group, but not one person could figure it out. "You're all superficial, looking at appearances rather than what lies on the inside. That said, if you're the non-human who's standing among the Shepherds today, please come forward." Robin figured this was the easiest way to break the news rather than point a finger at his friend. After several more seconds of everybody looking around, Shulk finally moved, walking slowly up to where the Exalt and the tactician were standing, positioning himself at the other side of Chrom.

"Robin is correct." Shulk raised his voice so that the whole group could hear him. "I'm not human. Not one of you bat an eyelash at me because you took my humanoid appearance for granted. This was at the same time as you were judging Robin's machine body just because he looks different." Now that it had been revealed that Shulk wasn't human, people were looking at him fearfully. Noticing this, he chuckled. "Worry not - even though I am not human, my own species is very close to yours. We are called Homs, and our bodies are indistinguishable from humans' in appearance. I'm not some kind of horrible monstrosity in disguise. This is my true form."

"It doesn't matter what somebody looks like on the outside!" Robin continued after Shulk finished speaking. "What matters is the heart that beats on the inside! I may now be part machine, but my loyalty will always be to the man who has saved my life countless times and offered me this place among the Shepherds as well as friendship. The Plegian colors of my robes hide my Ylissean heart. And that is why I stand before you today as your tactician." He then bowed to the crowd, finished with his lecture. Several seconds later, Shulk began to clap. From the Homs' prompting, the rest of the crowd quickly joined in. Robin was really proud that he had managed to completely turn everybody's opinion of him around, smiling proudly as he accepted the applause. He now knew that he would be able to lead these troops without having to worry about mutiny. Shulk walked over and put one hand on Robin's shoulder, beaming widely at his boyfriend. The blond swordsman was really happy that Robin had ended up saying those things about his own appearance without prompting, and it was clear that the tactician was starting to feel better about his Mechon body. It wasn't going to be easy for Robin to gain complete body confidence, but this was a step in the right direction.

Suddenly, the doors to the courtyard flung open once again. Everybody turned their eyes in that direction to see what was going on, noticing a little girl with shoulder length blue hair in a periwinkle dress dash out into the area unsteadily, a large stick brandished in her hands. "I'm gonna join the Shepherds too!" She called out, making everybody chuckle at her tenacity. Chrom walked over and picked the little girl up into his arms, snuggling her and telling her that she could join the Shepherds when she was older. While the Exalt was distracted, Shulk decided to ask Robin as to what was going on.

"...Who is that girl?" He asked. The tactician gave his boyfriend an incredulous look before laughing aloud.

"You haven't figured it out?" The white haired male replied. "I thought you of all people would have put two and two together, but I guess not. That's Lucina!"

"That's Lucina?!" It was hard for Shulk to imagine the beautiful warrior maiden he knew from the tournament and this cheeky little girl who was currently being cuddled in Chrom's arms being one and the same. However, he quickly remembered that the young woman was Chrom's daughter and everything started to make more sense. After all, the Lucina he was familiar with had mentioned that she was from the future, hence why she and Chrom were similar ages in the tournament despite being father and daughter.

Shulk's thoughts were interrupted as yet another individual hurried out into the courtyard, this one being a young woman with blond hair pulled back into two pigtails and a lace headdress draped over her head. She was scolding Lucina for running off on her and interrupting "Daddy's important meeting", which was met with the blue haired girl nearly bursting into tears and apologizing to 'Auntie'. Immediately afterward, Chrom laughed and told the lady that she was worrying too much and that 'Lucy' hadn't done anything bad. He then placed the tiny princess in the woman's arms and they started walking away together. The Homs was absolutely confused as to who that was, and Robin was quick to detect that.

"That's Lissa, Chrom's sister." He explained. "She's literally Lucina's aunt, so don't worry about her. Little Lucy's in good hands. Lissa and Frederick will be taking care of her while we're out in Plegia."

"Frederick?" Shulk had no idea who that was. "Who's Frederick?"

"Ah right, you don't know him." Robin chuckled. "Frederick is a knight who's served the Exalted family since before Chrom was even born. Now he's the knight captain and he was in charge of recruiting all of the other men who are standing here with us today. He's also Lucina's uncle, having married Lissa. Either way, those two will make sure Lucina stays safe here in Ylisstol while we're out and about." Shulk nodded his head slowly and smiled.

"Well then, sounds like everything's set here for our departure." He mused aloud. "I can't wait to see the great High Deliverer of Ylisse command an army like he used to during the war~"

"I can't wait to stretch my strategic muscles." Robin replied, forcing a smile. In actuality, he was really nervous. This was the first time in ages that he had to worry about making sure somebody he greatly cared about didn't get hurt since the incident that had resulted in his wife and Morgan's deaths, after all. If Shulk ended up dying in battle, Robin was convinced that he would take his own life again, as the wound on his heart that had been mended by Shulk's love would be torn open once more. He needed to protect the Heir to the Monado at all costs, even if he was a perfectly capable swordsman on his own.

* * *

Once the situation with Lucina had been all sorted out, the group started moving out of the castle, Chrom leading the way with Shulk and Robin bringing up the rear. There wasn't a need for strategy yet when they were just marching out of the capital, and thus the two were allowed to hang back. The tactician knew that they would be marching through the streets of Ylisstol in order to get on their way, meaning there would be plenty of people who would see him and his weird appearance before they left. As much as Robin liked the robe he was currently wearing because it was longer than his usual one and he could easily just do up the clasps and almost completely hide his metal body, the one problem he had with it was the lack of hood. Even if there was a hood on it, it would be impossible to put it up due to the shawl that draped around his shoulders and the epaulets holding it down. There was no way to disguise the metal horns on his head as a result. Despite what he had just said about his body not mattering as much as his heart, it was still hard for him not to feel self conscious when his metal body was on display for many individuals to see. Thankfully Shulk was there beside him to provide support.

While the group was marching through the town, a high pitched voice rang out from behind the parade. "HEY!" Somebody was yelling loudly. Both Shulk and Robin stopped looked back to see what was going on, as they were at the tail end of the group as it was. Two young men ran out to catch up with the parade, one with red hair, a large hat, and a brown robe covered by a blue shawl with a long, highly decorated tabard in the front, and the other with tanned skin, light blond hair, a golden neckpiece with feathers coming off of it, blue shoulder pads, golden gauntlets, and a golden large belt holding up blue pants with greaves covering the bottom. It was clear that the redhead, the smaller of the two, was the one who had called out for the party to stop. Robin recognized these two immediately.

"Ricken, Vaike!" He called out, nodding to the redhead and then the blond in order, acknowledging each by their name. "What are you two doing here?" Vaike stepped forward and examined Robin, taking particular note of the ivory haired male's metal horns.

"Who the heck are you?" He said aloud. "Clearly you know the Vaike, but the Vaike doesn't know you..." Ricken shook his head and sighed.

"Vaike, isn't it obvious?" The young mage chimed in. "It's Robin! If you look past those purple... things on his head, he looks just like him." He then turned to face Shulk. "I don't think I've ever seen you before, though. Who exactly are you?"

"Oh right, I should introduce myself." The blond swordsman replied. "My name is Shulk. I'm another relatively new friend of Robin's. I take it you're Ricken and the other guy is Vaike."

"You can call me Teach." The axe wielder chipped in. Robin sighed and crossed his arms.

"...Can we do this while walking?" He grunted, immediately turning to catch up with the rest of the group that had walked on without the four of them. Everybody nodded in agreement as they hurried forward behind the rest of the Shepherds. Several seconds later, the tactician continued. "Anyway, as I was asking you two before, what are you doing here?"

"We decided that we're going to join you to get Sumia back!" Ricken replied quickly. "You wouldn't mind me providing support with my magic and Vaike with his axe, would you?"

"Teach wants to show those jerks who took the queen a lesson!" Vaike added on after Ricken finished speaking. "Besides, we're all Shepherds! Fighting under Chrom is what we do!" Robin briefly shook his head.

"I wanted this task force to be as small as possible to avoid attracting too much attention by the Plegians..." He muttered a little too loudly. With a normal vocal tone, he continued. "However, you two are very skilled, and I guess it wouldn't hurt adding two more individuals to the group. All right, you can come with us."

"Well, they kind of already are..." Shulk noted. Vaike immediately started laughing before he took a couple quickened paces forward in order to catch up to the Monado wielder and wrap an arm around his shoulders.

"Hahaha, good one!" He spoke quite raucously. "Teach likes you already! I'm sure we'll be pals in no time~" The smaller blond chuckled awkwardly, trying to push the other's arm off him without being too rude. Both Robin and Ricken sighed, noting Shulk's obvious discomfort. Vaike was being a bit too friendly, really. Once Vaike had been removed from Shulk, the four stragglers picked up their pace in order to get back in with the rest of the group that was following along behind Chrom. By this point, they had left Ylisstol and were now on their way to the Ylisse-Plegia border. Soon the strategic crossing of the desert kingdom would begin and Robin's tactical expertise would be needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3173 words. Notes:
> 
> 1\. If you're curious or can't quite figure out what Chrom, Robin, Ricken, and Vaike are supposed to be wearing, they have their Great Lord, Grandmaster (robe and shawl only, as the greaves and breastplate aren't necessary when Robin's body is already made out of highly resistant armor), Sage, and Warrior outfits on, respectively. Yeah, everybody's wearing promoted class outfits.
> 
> Also, [here's](https://40.media.tumblr.com/b0ca21f922e45517ed06a4cd82558853/tumblr_inline_nxo0emJhyg1tori5u_540.png) a little bonus, because I was bored and writing inspiration was escaping me. Hopefully that gives you a better idea as to what Robin looks like as a Mechon with his Grandmaster robe on.
> 
> 2\. I'm mostly going by the marriages I had in my first playthrough of Awakening (with some changes, as I played as the female avatar and married Stahl). Meaning yes, I had Chrom marry Sumia and Frederick marry Lissa. I don't think I'll be bringing up any more of the pairings in this particular story, however. Maybe in another one? I haven't planned that far ahead yet. And yes, this means that Lissa is not Robin's dead wife, obviously.


	4. A Machine's Strategy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Shepherds are finally moving through Plegia as quietly as they can. Unfortunately, they still end up getting into a few battles with the people of the desert. But will Robin's plans will get them out of trouble easily? Can they find Sumia before anything bad happens to her? Or perhaps to the Shepherds themselves?

Things were quiet up until the Shepherds got to the border between Ylisse and Plegia. Chrom had decided to set up camp while they were still on the Ylisse side of the border. That way, they were less likely to be attacked, as they were still on friendly soil. Of course, there was always the opportunity for bandits to come around and find them, but Chrom set up night watch rotations to keep an eye out for unsavory individuals as everybody else slept. Each person in camp was assigned to a rotation slot, even Vaike and Ricken (who Chrom was surprised to see yet glad they were offering their help). After that, tents were assigned to pairs. There were a total of fifteen individuals in the task force, eleven men, four women. Chrom claimed a tent to himself, seeing as he was the Exalt, meaning the others split up evenly into men's and women's tents.

Robin was very quick to claim Shulk as his tent mate, and the blond swordsman had no qualms agreeing to that. He really didn't want to get paired up with anybody he didn't really know that well anyway. The two of them quickly set up their camp for the night without a hitch, and then Robin started walking off once their tent was ready for the night. Of course, Shulk wondered what was going on, as it wasn't really like the tactician to just randomly wander off.

"I'm going to supervise the rest of the group." He answered. "There are probably other people who could use a little help getting their tents set up, after all." After a moment of pause, Shulk stood up and walked over to where the ivory haired male was standing.

"In that case, I'm going to help out too." Shulk replied. "It's the least I can do, after all. There are likely some people who still think I'm some kind of alien creature after you revealed that I'm not human to them, you know." Robin's face flushed as he avoided the other's cerulean eyes.

"I'm sorry for throwing you under the caravan like that..." He apologized. "It's just, I saw you standing there in the crowd and I had a sudden idea. Thank you for going along with it, even if it was calling you out in front of everybody." The Homs shook his head and threw his arms around the small cyborg, deliberately reaching up past the robe he was wearing to place a hand on Robin's remaining human flesh. The warm sensation of feeling Shulk's hand on his chest made Robin gasp and turn his head to face the taller male. His eyes were closed as he continued to lean on the sturdy metal shoulder of the white haired tactician, but there was a smile on his face.

"It doesn't matter if I'm a Homs, human, or something else entirely." Shulk said peacefully. "You said it yourself - it's the heart that matters. I'm glad you're starting to feel better about your body, though." Robin sighed quietly. He had honestly been caught up in a wave of emotion when he said those words. There were still quite a few body issues he needed to get over, and he wondered if he would ever be able to look at himself in a mirror again without cringing at the very sight of his body. Still, Shulk was happy and that was all that mattered.

"Perhaps we should actually start asking around about setting up tents pretty soon." Robin retorted, trying to change the topic. Shulk wanted none of it. He gently shook his head before opening his eyes once more. With a little difficulty due to the weight of Robin's Mechon body, Shulk ended up spinning the other back around so they were facing their own tent once more.

"How about we just continue cuddling in our tent, yes?" The younger male purred in his boyfriend's ear. "We really haven't had much of an opportunity to cuddle since we came out to Ylisse, after all. I mean, I'm glad we're helping with the situation surrounding the queen, but we still came out here to relax. Really, I think we should both just take to our tent for the night." Shulk had a good point. This wasn't much of a vacation so far. Perhaps a little time to settle down before things got rough was necessary. Neither of them were on duty for night watch tonight, so they could just spend the rest of the night getting snuggly. Gently shrugging his shoulders, Robin started walking forward with Shulk still draped over him, the two of them headed into the tent now.

Once inside, Shulk immediately flung himself off Robin and jumped onto the sleeping bag that he had claimed as his bed while they were out on the road. Robin slowly sat down next to him, fully aware that if he jumped in a way similar to what Shulk did just now, he'd likely end up ripping his Grandmaster robe as well as the sleeping bag thanks to his metal body. After Robin was seated, the Monado wielder set his weapon aside and then jumped back onto the tactician, tackling him to the ground. The drones that hovered around the white haired male's body quickly zoomed out of the way so that he didn't end up landing on them, settling down nearby and out of the way.

"S-Shulk!" Robin grunted, completely taken aback by how forward the seer was being tonight. "Ugh... My robe..." He had no idea if he had just punched holes in his outfit or if it was still all right, considering he couldn't even feel the fabric on his back. What appeared to be a dangerous looking smile found its way to Shulk's face as he undid the cord connecting the epaulets and started sliding the robe off his boyfriend's shoulders. "...What in Naga's name are you doing?" Was he... being stripped? Robin's face started turning pink as he thought about how Shulk was being so forward tonight. The blond haired male gently helped his robot boyfriend slip out of his robe, guiding his arms back so that he could remove them from the arm holes of the robe. The only reason the greatly flustered mage knew that was happening was because he could feel the other moving his arms around.

"There." Shulk ended up saying not long later before realizing what kind of condition his boyfriend was in. "...Why is your face so pink? I was just making sure your robe didn't get ruined if you happen to move around at all while we snuggle..." Color drained from Robin's face immediately once he heard that. So Shulk had nothing but pure intentions this whole time, wishing to make sure the lovely robe he wore didn't get ruined.

 _Ugh, get your brain out of the gutter!_ Robin chastised himself internally. _No way Shulk would be interested in anything like that! He wouldn't want to do it with your stupid metal body anyway!_ Not only that, but the tactician's metal body suffered from "Barbie-Doll Syndrome", completely lacking anything that Shulk could use to do it with even if he wanted to. He had personally checked to see if there was anything, but he had discovered nothing at all. That didn't seem to matter at all to the Monado wielder right now, as he then gently laid down next to Robin and placed his head on the other's bosom. The ivory haired male's eyes flickered open and he was pleasantly surprised to feel the other's warmth against his skin. Even Shulk's straw-like hair brushing against his sensitive body was enough to feel nice. With a peaceful sigh, Robin reached his arms up to cover the upper torso of the body that was resting atop his own.

This was perfectly fine too. Shulk's eyes were closed, as if the tactician's heartbeat had lulled him to sleep. It was for that reason that Robin fell asleep himself, feeling peaceful with Shulk snuggled up in his arms.

* * *

"...Robin, are you dead in he..." Chrom had pushed his way into the tent because he hadn't heard anything from his tactician since he disappeared to pitch his tent. What the Great Lord was not expecting to see was Robin pinned to the floor with Shulk's body straddled over him partially. Not only that, but Robin's robe wasn't on his body, but rather wrinkled up underneath him. Robin was essentially naked! Thankfully, the Heir to the Monado was still fully clothed, but it was still really weird to see your close friend without any clothes on sleeping underneath another guy. "Gods!" Chrom shouted, redfaced. He quickly backed up several steps while screaming aloud. It was enough to cause both the tactician and the seer to jolt upright, both becoming completely red themselves.

"WHAT IN NAGA'S NAME POSSESSED YOU TO BARGE IN HERE?!" Robin screamed at the top of his lungs. He was so mad at the Exalt that he thought his Attack Mode was going to activate. Thankfully it didn't, but the tactician's yelling was enough for Chrom to scram as it was. "Gods!" Anger quickly turned to humiliation as the tactician quickly threw his robe and shawl back on and then buttoned up all the snaps so nobody could see any of his Mechon body. His face was still beet red, however, and not even Shulk hugging him again could calm him down.

"...Your robe hasn't been ripped at all, if you're curious." Shulk said quietly, knowing that Robin was seething right now. "I'm glad your clothes are still okay. Your robe is very exquisite, after all."

"Shut up, Shulk..."

"Chrom was probably worried about you. We might have overslept. You should probably go find him..." Robin turned his face toward the male that was hugging him and glared for a second before giving a sigh.

"...You're right. The sun's already up past the trees. We definitely overslept. Come on." The tactician picked himself up from the ground and Shulk followed not long later. The two of them calmly left the tent and started asking around about where the Exalt had disappeared to. It soon became clear that Chrom had hurried back to his tent after he had rushed out of the tactician and the seer's tent. Everybody was wondering what the fuss was about, but Robin insisted that everything would be all right.

Upon entering Chrom's tent, the Great Lord was quick to greet them, but his face was still pretty red. "W-well... Glad to see you two up at last. Perhaps we can hold a strategy meeting now about what we're going to do about searching the land for Sumia." Sternly, Robin pushed past into the tent and sat down at a large table where a bunch of wooden pieces and a large map were set up.

"Hand me the roster." The tactician said, still looking serious. He was very determined when it came to his job as a strategist. Trying to get back on Robin's good graces, Chrom spent no time handing the book over, placing it in the other's outstretched metal hand. When Robin's hand bobbed from the weight being added, he knew to clasp his hand shut and bring it back in front of his face. The white haired male spent no time flipping through the text, trying to glean important information that he needed for his strategies quickly enough.

"...Looks like everybody's bringing something unique to the table." He muttered. "Let's see... We've got a Great Lord, Grandmaster, whatever the heck Shulk is, Sage, Warrior, Berserker, Assassin, War Cleric, General, Falcon Knight, Sniper, Paladin, Valkyrie, Sorcerer, and Bow Knight to work with... Though, there is one thing I have to ask, as it's not in here... Shulk?"

"Me?" The Homs had been distracted by Robin's abnormal way of speaking. He had even walked around the table in order to try getting a good look at Robin's eyes, wondering if they had changed color due to how robotic he was sounding right now. They were still the same chocolate brown hue they usually were, however. "What do you need to ask me?"

Robin nodded his head slowly. "You only wield swords, right?"

"Well, I can wield other weapons due to being a weapons developer, but I'm really the best with swords, yes..."

"All right, for all intents and purposes, I'll just refer to you as purely a swordsman." The mechanized tactician placed one of the pieces on the map before him. "The area we're going through is a bit hilly. As a result, there may be unfriendly individuals hiding. However, I'm sure the Plegians still don't know about us being here, so the chances of that are pretty small. Either way, when we make our way through here, we should be as cautious as possible. Slowly we're going to comb across the land in a structured way, trying to leave no stone unturned. We have non-perishable rations for a while, yes?" Robin's head turned toward Chrom, who quickly nodded.

"Yes, that's right." He said. "I was aware that we're going through the desert, so I made sure to request food that wouldn't spoil in the sun." The tactician nodded before turning back to the map.

"In that case, let's try to get out here by sunset." Robin pointed a metal finger at a place on the map in front of him. "There appears to be a small town around there we can stay at and perhaps resupply a little from. I know that Shulk and I wasted a bit of sunlight due to sleeping in, but I still think we can make it."

"Then we have a plan." Chrom said with a smile. "I'll go tell everybody to pack up, as we're headed out."

* * *

The trek through the desert was quiet for the most part. Robin was completely right - seeing as nobody knew the Shepherds were making a move through the area, they were able to go through without being impeded. It was just about sundown before things started to change, however. Everybody was continuing their steady pace, walking in the small group, when suddenly Shulk's eyes began to glow. He wasn't able to see anything of value besides himself walking and the faint outline of Robin up at the beginning of the pack, but he was capable of hearing something whizzing in from a slight angle off to right and directly ahead as well as a familiar voice shouting in pain as everybody stopped to try and figure out what was going on. As the glow disappeared from his eyes, the Monado wielder immediately shouted aloud.

"Ricken!" He yelled. "There's an attack coming from 2 o'clock!" The red haired mage nearly jumped with surprise upon hearing his name, but his eyes darted in the direction he was given, barely noticing that somebody was aiming a bow right at him. The archer let loose his attack, which Ricken was easily able to jump out of the way of thanks to Shulk's warning. After which, he quickly grabbed a yellow tome out of his robe and summoned up a magic spell.

" _THORON!_ " He cried, sending a large jolt of lightning toward his aggressor. The beam quickly flew through the air and zapped the archer, who rolled down the hill after receiving a direct hit. One of the other Shepherds hurried over to the archer's body, quickly noting to everybody that not only was the guy dead from the powerful lightning magic, but he was wearing ragged clothes.

"Brigands." Robin noted to himself, a mechanical hand on his chin. "It's likely, considering how close we are to the village, that he's just a scout for a group of those guys who have been terrorizing the poor people in town." Chrom unsheathed Falchion and thrust it into the air.

"Then we'll help these innocent people with their brigand problem." He said. "It doesn't matter that they're Plegians - they still need help, and we can provide assistance to them." The Shepherds all nodded in agreement before looking to Robin for an idea as to what to do.

"Right." That serious tone to Robin's voice returned as he tried to think up something on the spot. "I say we should try to split up into two groups and loop around to the back of the village. That way, if they try running around, we'll catch them in a pincer attack and they'll either be forced into the city or flee."

"Wait a sec!" Vaike suddenly chimed in. "We shouldn't take the fighting into the city! There has to be a way to make sure we don't get innocent people involved!"

"Then let's take three groups of five. Two groups go around the outside and one hides in the city." Shulk suggested. Chrom nodded in agreement before looking over at Robin to see what he wanted to do.

"...Yes, Shulk has a point. In that case, would you like to lead the group in the city yourself?" The tactician turned his head to look at his boyfriend, who slowly nodded after a few seconds.

"I'll do it." He said. "Just tell me who to bring along with me." Without skipping a beat, Robin listed off a group of names.

"Bring with you Albaer, Gaspar, Marja, and Oskar." He prattled off. The individuals mentioned, who happened to be a Berserker (as well as one of the two who antagonized Robin back in Ylisstol), Sorcerer, War Cleric, and General, respectively,  gathered behind the Heir to the Monado. Albaer elbowed Shulk in the side, chuckling slightly as the blond shot him a dirty look.

"Looks like you're in charge of us, Alien." He snickered. Shulk looked about ready to throw a punch at Albaer.

"Don't call me that." The Homs hissed. "I already explained that I'm not THAT alien. Besides, I'm your immediate superior right now. Treat me with respect."

"Never said I wasn't gonna follow you." Shulk rolled his eyes. Hopefully this jerk wasn't going to ruin everything with his big mouth. Either way, it was time to get things moving. Chrom took his group off to the left, Robin to the right, and Shulk into town. The third group charged through the city until they got to the far side, waiting behind some buildings for some kind of indication that either the bandits were headed their way or had been caught in the pincer.

Sure enough, one of the Shepherds spotted a group of individuals running toward the city about ten minutes later. As a result, the five heroes sprung out of hiding and effectively cut them off, causing the people hurrying into the city to stop in their tracks and immediately turn around. The Sorcerer Gaspar tried to attack from afar with his Mire tome, setting up bubbles of noxious liquid in front of the faces of the fleeing foes, managing to stymie a couple of them with that method.

As a result, the two who had been held back by the Mire spells were not absolutely obliterated a moment later. "Hammer of wrath, fall from the sky!" Robin's voice could be heard as magic glyphs spiraled around him. "MJOLNIR!" Lightning magic shot out of the sky afterward, smacking into the desert sand with a ridiculous amount of power. Everybody caught in the blast was utterly wiped out. Everybody looked at the tactician fearfully, knowing full well that wasn't normal what he had just done. It was even overkill for a Critical Hit. Worried, Shulk hurried ahead. He had noticed Robin moving forward to confront the two foes that weren't struck down by the insanely powerful Mjolnir spell and was worried that he would kill them as well. The two guys were effectively spooked by the attack and didn't look like wanting to fight anymore.

On the approach, Robin used the magic from his Levin Sword to strike down the first of the two bandits as the second started backing away. The tactician's eyes were a bright red, as Shulk had feared. Once he got a bit closer, the white haired male lifted the weapon to zap the last remaining foe...

Instead, the magic bounced off a barrier made up of interlocking yellow hexagons while the poor guy cowered for his life. A moment later, the man realized he was still alive as Robin stared in shock. His eye color had switched back to its original brown hue as he recognized the move that had been used to save the guy.

It was a Monado Shield.

"Robin!" Shulk stood between the bandit and the tactician, arms outstretched with his legendary weapon in one hand. "You went too far! We can't kill all of these guys without trying to get some information out of them!"

"I-I'll tell you anything you want!" The man begged, hurrying over to Shulk and dropping to his knees. "Please, just spare me! I only joined this group of thieves to provide for my wife and son!" Robin stared at the begging man and started backing up fearfully.

"...I can't believe myself..." He whispered, staring at his metal hands. "I almost murdered a man that was ready to surrender... I actually DID murder a surrendering man..." Before anything else could happen, Chrom stepped forward, addressing the thief.

"Tell me, do you perhaps know anything about where the Queen of Ylisse is?" The Exalt asked. The man shook his head.

"We had nothing to do with that!" He proclaimed. "I'm sorry... Can I please just go now?" Chrom sighed before slowly nodding his head. The man silently thanked the blue haired king as well as gave a vocal prayer to whatever deity might be listening to him before running off into the desert. The city was safe now, but there was still no clue as to where Sumia was.

* * *

It took several more days of fighting off Plegian bandits and saving innocents before there was finally a sign of something that could lead to where the missing queen could be. After the incident in the first town, Robin refused to actually get himself involved in any more fighting. He now knew that even when he was surrounded by the other Shepherds, he was still prone to losing control of himself and going overboard. After the Mjolnir incident, nobody objected to Robin hanging at the back out of the thick of battle, certainly not Chrom and Shulk.

During the crusade through the desert, the Shepherds happened upon a weird, rather nondescript looking stone building that was just standing out in the middle of the sand. Despite there being nothing else around for miles, there was a large number of troops outside the place. Also strange was that all of them were in gold and purple, the Plegian colors. These weren't ordinary brigands, that much was obvious. It was for that reason that Chrom was certain these were Grimleal and they were guarding something important. Seconds later, all eyes were on Robin. It seemed everybody had the same idea. The tactician backed up a step and shook his head.

"...No way." He protested. "I'm not wiping them all out with a Mjolnir. You can't make me." The other of the two men who antagonized Robin back in Ylisstol came forward, frowning at the tactician.

"Look at how many of those guys there are!" He hissed. "Do you want us going in there and getting surrounded? Just because you're being chicken about killing lots of people again?" Ricken also pushed forward, leering at the slightly taller man before also giving his two cents.

"Nadav, that's enough." He said, then turning to the white haired cyborg. "Robin, if you don't want to do it alone, all of us with tomes will chip in. That way, we'll have more than enough strength to wipe them out and the blood won't be all on your hands." After a second, Robin's look of surprise turned into a determined smile.

"You know, that's actually a pretty damn good idea!" He cheered. "Everybody with tomes, channel your strongest spell over the group of Grimleal over there. On three, we'll all unleash our spells at once." There were a total of four spellcasters, Robin and Ricken included. Considering how powerful Robin was in his Attack Mode, there was plenty enough firepower to obliterate the group of Grimleal. A couple survivors remained, but they quickly dispersed, wondering where such a powerful attack even came from. As a result, the building they were guarding was now free to enter.

But something was wrong. Just the fact that this place was so quiet and that none of the Grimleal that hadn't been taken out in the Shepherds' attempt just now to get in here had hurried inside for shelter was a bit disturbing, to say the least. This place had "trap" written all over it, between the vaulted ceilings that made the place feel like a tomb to just the overall quietude. Though he had been at the back of the group when they entered, Shulk quickly pushed his way to the front in order to talk with Robin about this. The tactician himself was standing right beside Chrom, both of them gawking at their surroundings.

"...Robin, we should really leave..." The Monado wielder half whispered, pleading to the white haired male. "I'm getting a really bad feeling about this, and I don't even need a vision from the Monado to tell me that."

"This place isn't safe, that much I can tell..." Robin replied. "But there was a reason those bastards were guarding this place so heavily, and I want to know why. They wouldn't be set up to just be red herrings for us, considering the Plegians haven't really had time to prepare for our arrival. There's definitely something here."

"Chrom, do you want the healers to attempt to scout something out with our staves?" Ricken asked, pulling out a staff from beneath his robes. "We can scan this place if you want." But it just so happened that was not going to be necessary. As the red haired sage drew closer to Chrom, suddenly a wall of purple flames erupted through the middle of the formation. Everybody leaped back away from the fire, completely surprised by what had just happened. "Whoa!" Ricken shouted. "What in Naga's name?!"

"Hey!" Vaike shouted a moment later. "What kind of cheap trick is this? We're being separated?! Nobody separates the Vaike from his buddy Chrom!" Just as the warrior was suggesting, the flames had sprung up between him and the Exalt. Also trapped on that side of the fire with Chrom were Robin and Shulk, with all of the other Shepherds on the side with the open entrance they had come through. Whatever had just cast this spell deliberately went out of their way to separate the three males from the rest of the group.

"Hold on!" Hanna, the Valkyrie of the group cried out as she attempted to cast Arcwind on the flames. However, this had absolutely no effect on the fire, not even wobbling the roaring purple pyre at all. Ricken decided to take a shot at rescuing the three partitioned heroes, this time attempting to snuff out the fire with Rexcalibur. When that produced the exact same effect as Hanna's Arcwind (as in, no effect at all), he changed up his strategy. Quickly the sage dove into his robes and pulled out a Bolganone tome, casting the fire magic atop the evil flames. However, the red fire was quickly snuffed out by the purple, and there was quickly no sign that Ricken had even used his magic anymore. He wanted to keep trying, but Robin called out to him to stop, as clearly the magic was too strong to be counteracted by tomes.

"The three of us will go on ahead and see if we can figure out what's going on here." Chrom said bravely. "The rest of you can investigate your side of the room to see if there's anything that might get us out of this mess." Shulk quickly shook his head and placed a hand on Chrom's right shoulder.

"Are you sure that's really safe?" He asked. "Surely we're being lured into a trap here, being split off from the rest of the group like this..." Robin nodded his head as well.

"Shulk's right. Whoever split us off from the others clearly wants us specifically." What exactly did a king, a cyborg, and an alien all have in common, however? Why specifically would those three be targeted?

Before Robin could really ponder the situation, one of the walls on the side of the room he was trapped on opened up. Chrom immediately spun around and looked at the other Shepherds, noticing none of them had moved. That meant whoever had cast the spell of the purple flames had likely moved the wall aside and was beckoning for the three to enter. Shulk's hands went to his hips.

"Okay, that is most certainly a trap." He retorted, narrowing his eyes. "Who does this person think they are, trying to get us to fall into something so obvious?" Robin crossed his arms.

"I have a feeling that whoever put up the wall of fire might be beyond there, but Shulk's right. It's far too fishy for us to just charge in there." The Exalt gesticulated to the rest of his troops before speaking.

"Everybody, split up and look for a way to get rid of these flames!" He ordered. "The three of us will do the same on our side." And with that, everybody spread out and started looking up and down the vault. There had to be a way to get rid of the fire in here somewhere.

About a minute later, there was a strange noise. Everybody looked back at the wall of fire to see if it was fading out, but were horrified to see that something much worse was happening. The flames were moving in on the back entrance, leaving less room for the three heroes trapped on that side. "Gyah!" Robin shouted, backing up a couple steps from the flames that were slowly coming his way. "The flames are closing in on us! That's not good!"

"It looks like we don't have a choice!" Barked Shulk. "We have to go through the entrance in the wall that opened up, else we'll get pinned against the walls and burn to death!" The last thing anybody wanted was for the three to perish in the evil flames. Therefore, Chrom, Robin, and Shulk were forced to hurry through the hole in order to escape the fire. Almost immediately after they entered, the wall swung back into its original placement with a bang and the flames petered out. All of the other Shepherds quickly hurried over to the wall, banging on it and trying to figure out how to open it back up, as the three young men that had hurried inside were now trapped within.

On the other side, Chrom was smacking the wall as well. "Agh!" He shouted. "Let us out of here! We were completely right! It was a trap!" Robin, on the other hand, had his eyes focused on something at the other end of the room. Quietly he gave a small gasp.

"...Chrom, you might want to turn around." He said. "Over there, at the far wall!" The blue haired male did as he was asked and he too gasped upon seeing it. Laying peacefully on some kind of flat stone bed was a woman with long curly hair in pinkish brown, clothed in a pink and purple dress. The Exalt stood in absolute shock for a second before he finally moved.

"SUMIA!" He shouted, immediately hurrying toward his wife. The second Chrom sped off, however, Shulk's eyes started glowing blue. In his vision, some kind of evil glowing magic that was somehow visible to him despite not being Ether based shot up around a silhouette, surrounding it with dozens of sharp spears of magic. The Monado wielder quickly put two and two together and realized that the individual in his vision was none other than Chrom, and the attack was just about to occur momentarily!

"Wait! Chrom! Stop!" Shulk yelled, running forward to try and catch up to the Exalt before he got attacked. "I just had a vis... Aah!" Surprisingly, it was Shulk who ended up being surrounded by a circle of evil magic spires rather than Chrom. The Homs' sudden cry caused the blue haired male to stop in his tracks and spin around to face him.

"...Shulk! Whoa!" Chrom too was then surrounded in a same manner, also now unable to move unless he wanted dark magic poking into his skin. Robin was horrified at what was going on.

"No!" He shouted before hurrying toward Shulk, who was the closer of the two. Before he could get too close, the tactician was trapped himself in a barricade of magic spears. All three of them were now unable to move, and an evil, feminine laugh filled the entire room.

"You foolish boys~" Just then, an individual appeared out of thin air, as if stepping out of the shadows. She took a few steps forward so that all three of the captive men could see her. The woman was wearing a purple and gold cloak, not unlike the one that Robin usually wore, and the hood was drawn up over her head. Chrom scowled as he took in the woman's appearance.

"Who the hell are you?!" He yelled. "Are you the one who took Sumia?!" Not really answering the question, the woman in the tactician robe walked over toward Shulk, looking out from underneath her hood at the Heir to the Monado.

"I'm sure you know who I am, don't you, Child Who Could Challenge the Gods?" Her voice sounded very seductive as she continued staring at him. The blond male tensed up immediately and his heart sank into his stomach. The one who actually ended up answering was Robin, however.

"GRIMA!" He shouted. "So this was all your doing! I knew there was dark magic involved! Let us go at once!"

"Wait, that's Grima?!" Chrom sounded extremely surprised. "I thought we defeated you!" Grima laughed and turned around to face the Exalt before pulling down her hood. Two white pigtails were revealed. The Fell Dragon's vessel looked identical to Reflet, but Shulk and Robin already knew that. Chrom, on the other hand, was surprised to see the feminine vessel. "Wait... you're a girl now?"

"I am actually from a different Outrealm." She explained. "One I cannot destroy right now due to... circumstances. Therefore I've been staying here, growing stronger and stronger from the remnants of my counterpart's power in this realm. After all, you did fail to permanently kill him..." Grima's red eyes darted over to Robin, who was looking pretty dejected.

"...I know I messed up..." He said softly. "I should have killed Grima. But I hesitated and Chrom did it instead... And now we're paying for it..." Grima walked over to the white haired male and looked him up and down.

"You really did mess up." She smirked. "And you've continued messing up, as well - you're hardly learning from your mistakes. Just look at this travesty of a body you have now. You would make a very unsuitable vessel in your sorry state." Robin looked like he was going to cry; not even Grima liked his mechanical body. Shulk looked about ready to punch the Fell Dragon if it weren't for the fact that he was surrounded by dark magic. Even Chrom was scowling at the white haired female's discouraging words. Sensing their anger, Grima just laughed. "Oh yes, that's right. I brought you three here for a reason. Don't worry, though... I don't plan on killing any of you... yet~"

Just then, Chrom screamed aloud as a giant spire rose up through the ground, impaling him in the chest. However, there were no marks on his armor, meaning that the attack had caused him no physical harm. A moment later, he collapsed after the large spike running through him vanished, as the magic-induced pain was likely far too much to withstand. A second later, another spike shot out of the ground, this time running through Shulk's body. He yelled loudly as well as he was pierced by the magic, fainting not long later just as Chrom did. And finally came Robin. Grima made sure the spike that impaled him went through the exposed flesh on his bosom, causing him to gasp in pain like the others. The tactician could feel his energy quickly slipping away before his eyes started getting heavy from the agony.

The last thing the white haired mage heard before passing out was Grima cackling loudly. Chrom, Robin, and Shulk were all now at her mercy, and she would certainly be taking them prisoner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6165 words. I am so sorry to Pepper for the tease at the beginning of the chapter. Or maybe not. The T rating persists! Or does it? Whatever will happen to our intrepid heroes now that they've been captured?!
> 
> And yes, this is the longest chapter I've written to date. ~~I know I could have (and should have) split it off into two parts, but this is what happens when you write the ending before the middle, hahaha. I don't really want to split it anywhere either, as each of the parts where I would want to split tie together too heavily.~~ Notes:
> 
> 1\. Yes, I came up with names and classes for all of the Shepherds. Most of them that aren't the five canon characters are minor, but the notable OCs are really mostly just Albaer the Berserker and Nadav the Assassin, AKA those guys who bugged Robin back in Ylisstol.
> 
> 2\. I know there's no actual staff that has the ability to scan an area around it in Fire Emblem, but I felt like if there was any weapon capable of doing such a thing, it would be a staff. I'm sure there are probably spells like that anyway in the Fire Emblem universe.
> 
> 3\. This is the first time Reflet!Grima has seen Robin's Mechon body, obviously. Remember what she says about it. It'll be important later! Maybe not in this story, but certainly later on.
> 
> 4\. On the topic of Reflet!Grima, remember that Robin's timeline follows the Chrom Ending of Awakening rather than the Avatar Ending. That means Grima hasn't been destroyed, but only sealed to rise again sometime in the future, thousands of years from now. Seeing as Robin!Grima was only just recently sealed away, much of his power still remains in this world, which Reflet!Grima is absorbing to become stronger. Of course, she's not the only one growing stronger...
> 
> And yes, even though Grima as a dragon is canonically male, I use female pronouns for Reflet!Grima because his host has a female body.


	5. A Machine's Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin, Shulk, and Chrom have been taken captive by Grima. Clearly she's up to no good, if she's gone as far as imprisoning the three heroes. Will they manage to get out of this situation alive? How? And what about the rest of the Shepherds?

Robin had absolutely no idea how long he was out for, but when he woke up again, he was still feeling pretty drained. As a result, it took him way too long to figure out what kind of situation he was in right now. The moment he did, however, the white haired cyborg snapped back to reality really fast.

He was in some kind of dark room, almost too dark to see anything within. If only his Mechon body had been installed with lights in his eyes, he would turn those on quickly in order to illuminate the situation a bit more, both figuratively and literally. However, his eyes had not been modified at all (despite his new ability to change eye colors with his different program schema), and that was out of the question. Robin then tried to move and quickly discovered that both his hands and feet had shackles clamped onto to them, the chains they were attached to wrapping around both his limbs and a sturdy pillar several times. To make things even more awkward, his hands were suspended over his head rather than around the pillar he had been strung up against.

The tactician attempted to pull against his shackles, tugging with all of his mechanical strength in an attempt to free himself. He even went as far as filled his mind with angry thoughts about Grima in order to force Attack Mode, wishing to call upon his extra strength that he possessed in that mode. It was a failure, as his eyes remained brown and he could only rely on his normal strength to free himself right now. Unfortunately, not even Mechon strength was enough to make any kind of headway against the reinforced chains wrapped around his hands, and he quickly gave up, gasping hard from the amount of strain he had put into his attempt at freedom.

It seemed his struggle had gotten the attention of somebody else, however. A quiet voice called out from the tactician's left at that moment. "...Robin? Is that you?" Even though the voice could barely be heard, its gentle tone and foreign accent quickly made the tactician figure out who it was, and his heart sank as a result.

"...Shulk..." The white haired Mechon replied. "So you were captured too..."

"It's not just me, Robin." The Homs replied. "Don't you remember? We were all surrounded by Grima's magic, and then I'm guessing we were both impaled by that spell that got Chrom. He's here too, by the way."

"Glad you could finally join us, Robin." The Exalt's voice was also soft, coming from further left than Shulk's. "Here's a mighty fine pickle we've all ended up in..." Robin couldn't help but grimace knowing that all three of them were being held prisoner. He tried to shake his head, but the metal horns ended up bumping into his arms that were chained up over his head, leaving little room for him to do so.

"There's no way Grima can get away with this." He stated flatly. "She can't imprison all of us and get off scot-free. I mean, she's practically starting a war with Ylisse by holding Chrom prisoner! He's the goddamn Exalt!" Chrom sighed loudly.

"You know the minute word gets out that I've been captured, Frederick's likely going to send all of Ylisse's troops out to get me back." The blue haired male worried. "It really is going to be a war, and it's my fault..." The sound of chains rattling slightly could be heard before Shulk's voice gently spoke up again.

"It's not your fault, Chrom." The Monado wielder spoke reassuringly. "Grima went out of her way to set up this elaborate trap for us. She could have just taken you instead of Sumia, but by using her to lure you in, she ended up getting Robin and me as well..." The tactician's head lowered and his own shackles jingled slightly before he spoke.

"Trying to take a vacation to Ylisse was a mistake." He sighed. "We've barely had any time to relax since coming here, Shulk. Not only that, we've only furthered Grima's plans by helping the Shepherds. I'm sorry for even suggesting this..." Before a response could be given, there was the sound of a door opening and footsteps entering the room.

"Well well..." A deep voice boomed. "Who do we have here? The Exalt of Ylisse, Grima's failed Avatar, and the child who forsook Grima's love, yes?" There was the sound of footsteps as a man in a dark purple cloak came forward and walked up to the pillar in the middle of the room, where Robin figured Shulk had been chained up around, judging by where his voice had come from earlier.

"Yes, this is the one..." Another deep voice came from close to where Shulk's had permeated from earlier, making Robin assume that he was practically right in front of the Homs' face at this moment. "This is the boy who lobbed off my hand!" Immediately after he finished speaking, there was the sound of skin quickly smacking into skin as a pained yelp belonging to Shulk filled the entire room. It went without saying that the man had just slapped the teenager in the face just now. Without realizing it, that cry of agony had immediately activated the Mechon tactician's green eyed Protect Mode. Once again he struggled against the chains, trying to wiggle free so that he could leap over and hurry to Shulk's rescue. The metal still refused to give, not even allowing any slack.

Footsteps again could be heard as one of the cloaked men came into sight, staring at Robin from beneath his dark colored robe. The man snorted before speaking. "Look at you." He said darkly. "You were blessed with the perfect body to serve our god Grima, and not only did you reject him, but you ruined your divine flesh as well. Just how much of your body is still flesh and blood anyway? Just your face?" The mechanized tactician said nothing for a moment before closing his eyes.

"Human or Mechon, I would never allow Grima to have my body." He stated calmly, eyelids still shut. Beneath them, his eyes had returned to their normal brown color once more. "This body belongs to nobody but me. I control my own fate." Angry, the man hurried forward and snapped the epaulet cord off Robin's Grandmaster cloak before moving the two sides of the robe away in order to fully take a better look at the metal body that was chained up against the pillar. "...What even are you doing?!" Robin cried out, feeling threatened by the suddenness of the movement. If it was possible, the tactician would have kicked the guy in the head, but clearly that wasn't an option as long as there were shackles wrapped around the ankles of his prosthetic legs. The man merely scoffed, as he felt no sense of threat from the incapacitated captive in front of him.

"There really isn't much of Grima's divine flesh remaining..." He sounded very disgusted. "Just your head and bust. You're useless." Robin was trying not to get affected by the man's words, but considering his body that the ivory haired male already felt terrible about was being insulted, it was impossible to not feel something, whether it be outrage or dejection.

"Not that I need him anyway." A familiar female voice sounded from nearby. Grima... "He was only targeted because I cannot allow him to lead that ragtag group of soldiers to interfere with my plans." There was a slew of slow footsteps as the owner of the voice stepped out from behind a door herself and started parading around behind the pillars each of the young men were bound to. Thanks to the way his arms were suspended over his head and the metal horns on his skull, Robin couldn't turn his head to see what was happening off to his left, and thus he tried to figure it out purely using his sense of hearing. A couple seconds later, seductive laughter could be heard close to where Shulk's voice had been projecting from. "You, on the other hand... You'll be very useful to me~"

"S-stop touching me..." Shulk's voice was full of fear, and his chains were rattling again as he tried to squirm away from the Fell Dragon's grasp to no avail. Again the green eyed Protect Mode activated from hearing how distressed the Heir to the Monado sounded. What even was Grima doing to him? Just then, there was an especially loud clattering of metal followed by a shout that was quickly cut off. For several seconds, absolutely nothing could be heard. Robin dreaded to hear about what was going on, but he quickly found out when Chrom started shouting.

"Leave Shulk alone!" The Exalt yelled. "You're making him very uncomfortable! He doesn't love you! Agh!" The sound of magic being cast immediately preceded his yelp of pain, as it was more than likely Chrom had gotten zapped by a Thunder spell just then to get him to shut up. Another evil chuckle could be heard a moment later before Grima resumed speaking.

"Mmm, yes~" She cooed. "Your lips are just as delicious as they were back then... Perhaps even more so now. I think that the stronger you are, the more delectable you are, Child Who Could Challenge the Gods... And you're hardly at your peak power, so you'll only continue to be more enticing as I draw out more and more of your latent strength~"

"...Please leave me alone..." The blond swordsman's voice was barely audible, but even more fearful than before. Robin was absolutely livid right now. How dare Grima assault the man he loved like that!

"Aww, is that how you feel?" The dragon asked sarcastically. "Not to worry, with a little time, you'll be groveling at my feet and wishing to be bestowed with my love. You will be my precious personal slave... an honor that few have ever had. After all, I treat my personal slaves with limitless love and affection, and any mortal would certainly wish to be showered with the boundless love of a god~ Wouldn't you?"

"...No!" Shulk gasped aloud. "I won't be your slave! You're lying to me! You only want to enslave me because you're afraid of my power! You said it yourself, I'll soon be capable of challenging the gods with my strength! As a god, you're afraid of what I would be able to do against you!" Grima started laughing loudly.

"Clearly you aren't from this realm." She giggled once more before continuing. "If you were, you would know that I can only be slain by my own hand. You will never vanquish me, as a result."

"Then I'll defeat you!" Robin roared, eyes still emerald green. "I'll defeat you and I'll save Shulk, Reflet, Chrom... everybody who's been tormented by you! I'll make up for failing to kill Grima in this timeline!" Once again the Fell Dragon laughed as she quickly sauntered over to the ivory haired male, staring at him with all six of her eyes.

"Sorry, but you're not 'my hand'." She laughed. "Your blood differs enough from my own so that you cannot defeat me. Nice try, but you had your chance and blew it." This caused Robin's eyes to widen a little in confusion.

"...Huh? What do you mean? Am I not your vessel?" Grima gave another evil laugh before she walked up close to the tactician, staring into his emerald orbs with all six of her glowing red eyes.

"There's a reason why Reflet was born female in my timeline..." She responded. "Her mother isn't quite the same as yours. You two may both have Validar as your father, but your mothers are ever so slightly different... And it's for that reason that you cannot defeat me." Robin's eyes blinked back to their original brown hue as his eyes widened even more from shock. Was there really a difference between them? Did that seriously mean that there wasn't anything he could do to save his realm from Reflet's Grima? Changing the subject, Grima moved away from Robin and turned around. "Well, I'll be back soon. Once I return, I will be claiming your precious blond haired friend as my slave. I'll even let you watch, if you're a good boy~" Following another cackle, Grima walked out of sight, and the sounds of the other two cultists leaving soon followed. There were several seconds of silence before soft sniffling could be heard, followed by gentle sobbing from the middle of the room.

"...Shulk, it's going to be okay..." Chrom's voice could be heard trying to console the crying teenager. "I'm sure Naga won't allow anything bad to happen to you..."

"You don't get it, do you?!" Shulk shrieked, inconsolable. "We're beyond help! Naga can't do anything to save us here!" Robin felt like he was about to burst into tears as well, but a thought came to his mind. Everybody's weapons had been taken, he was sure of it. There was one thing that Grima didn't know about, however...

"...Remote operation, activate." The tactician said in a monotone voice without warning. His eyes flickered shut before opening back up to reveal that they had changed color from brown to a light gray with darker gray cross hairs in the place of his pupils.

"Robin? What's going on?" Shulk asked, utterly confused by Robin's actions and temporarily distracted from his sorrow. A moment later, something small whizzed into the room, swooping around behind the pillar the Monado wielder was restrained against. The sound of jet boosters hovering in place could be heard a moment later, and Shulk could swear that his wrists were getting hotter. Almost immediately afterward, Shulk put two and two together in his mind. To test this, he once again pulled against the chains that were wrapped around his hands and was pleasantly surprised when he managed to snap the chain links in several places and broken pieces clattered to the ground while the remainders of what were still attached to his hands swung forward. The process was quickly repeated with his legs, and he was freed as a result.

"...I can't believe that actually worked!" The blond teenager cheered, rubbing his wrists. He couldn't actually remove the shackles that were still attached to his limbs, but he could deal with those later. Eyes immediately darted over to Robin, who still had the gray hue in his eyes. Once his drones had finished releasing Shulk, they had flown over to Chrom and started working on getting him free. Not quite sure what to do right now, as he didn't have the Monado on his person and he didn't want to attract too much attention by blundering through this place on his own, Shulk walked over so that he was staring into Robin's glazed over eyes. About a minute later, Chrom hurried over to join Shulk as the drones set to work on the tactician's body.

"I don't think Robin can actually move right now." The Exalt noted. "He hasn't moved at all since you came over here... Has he, Shulk?" The Homs shook his head.

"No, I believe he's controlling his drones rather than his body right now." Shulk theorized, walking over to Robin's body as the chains still attached to his limbs clattered while he walked. "We should help him, then. Let's pull him off the wall because he can't do it himself." Chrom nodded in agreement, and the two of them started tugging on each of Robin's hands while the drone jets heated the metal. Once those broke, the two young men continued pulling on their friend while the fire heated up the chains on his legs. Soon, the tactician's body came free and practically fell into Chrom and Shulk's arms. The drones quickly whizzed over and reattached themselves to Robin's back before his eyes blinked back to their usual brown color. The Mechonized male quickly sprung back to life and threw himself into Shulk's grasp.

"I did it!" He laughed, continuing to hug his boyfriend. "I actually saved us!" Robin's eyes redirected over to Chrom, still smiling. "Thank you for pulling me off that pillar. I wasn't able to do it myself." Just then, the happy reunion ended as there was a loud shriek from the other side of the room. Everybody redirected their eyes over to the far wall to see that Grima was standing there with the two brothers behind her, looking absolutely livid.

"How did you three escape?!" She yelled. "You weren't supposed to be able to get out of those chains!"

"My lady, look closer..." One of the brothers' deep voices echoed from behind her. "They didn't get out of the chains - they broke them. They still have shackles attached to their hands and feet."

"...Kill the Exalt and that failure!" Grima shouted, pointing at the three heroes. "Leave the blond boy alive!" Robin's heart sank as he heard that order. Grima really didn't care if he or Chrom were dead and only really wanted to keep Shulk alive in order to make him into her slave. There was no time to just sit around, however. Robin grabbed one of Chrom's and Shulk's hands and started leading them in the direction that his drones had come from, almost certain that their weapons were all there. The tactician didn't trust his own strength to fly away with Chrom and Shulk in tow, as he had barely gotten far with just Shulk back on Bionis. While they ran, the heroes dodged a plethora of spells that were flung at them by the two brothers.

Just before Robin managed to get his two friends away from Grima and her followers, he felt a swift yank on one arm, losing the grip of the individual who he had been holding onto with that arm. Eyes darted back quickly and the tactician's heart sank as he realized that it was Shulk who had been forced out of his grasp, and the seer had one arm pinioned behind him as he was trying to pull away from whatever had grabbed him.

"Ugh!" Shulk shouted, still straining to free himself. "Curse these bloody chains!" Upon noticing that Robin and Chrom had stopped, he gesticulated to them with his free hand. "Keep going!" He barked. "Grima wants me alive! I'll be all right! Go find your weapons and come back!" The blue haired male nodded before he pushed Robin out of the way of an Arcwind attack and then started pulling the tactician away so they could go after their weapons. Once they were out of sight, an evil cackling could be heard as Grima appeared out of the shadows behind the Monado wielder.

"What a noble sacrifice!" She teased, getting closer and closer with an evil smile on her face. "If only you had been able to cut the chains off your arms, this wouldn't have happened. Instead, you got hooked on one of my spells..." The dragon reached out and wrapped her hands around the shackle hanging off Shulk's other arm before throwing it out in front of her and letting a curl of magic snag it. As a result, the seer's arms were being pulled on in both directions and he was completely immobilized with his arms pulled out taut on each side of him to prevent movement. "Or perhaps two of them now. Don't worry, you'll be free momentarily~"

"Please, don't do this..." Shulk whined. He tried straining against the magic holding his arms apart, but to no avail. He grunted as Grima pressed her body up against his own and wrapped her arms around his torso. There was nothing he could do to stop her from holding him like that. She rested her head against his bosom, listening for his heart. The pace was quick, making no efforts to hide how afraid he was.

"Mmm... I relish in your fear, boy~" Grima sighed, finally moving her arms to worm underneath his sweater. The teenager's heart rate quickly picked up when she did that, a burst of adrenaline shooting through him. All this accomplished was making the Fell Dragon smile wider. "That's right, be afraid of me... I'll turn your fear into loyalty." With that, she dug her nails into Shulk's back, making him cry out in pain. To silence the seer as she worked her magic on him, the white haired dragon reached up and started passionately kissing him. At first he resisted, but the more her magic took hold, the more his resistance fell before he stopped fighting back entirely and returned her kisses with increasing intensity. By the time Robin returned, he had arrived to his boyfriend hungrily kissing the dragon with the spitting image of his female counterpart. And this was infuriating enough to activate his Attack Mode and deactivate his common sense.

"GYAAAAHHH!" Robin screamed as he foolishly activated the Monado, which had been in his hands at the time. The legendary sword was shooting out electricity up and down his arms, but the Mechon didn't care. What mattered right now was saving Shulk. He managed to wrangle the sword into his control long enough to slash through the shackles on the blond's hands and force Grima off Shulk by burning her arm with the Ether blade.

"Ugh!" She yelled, holding onto her injured arm and glaring at Robin. "You... reject! How dare you disrupt me!" Trying to hide the pain that was shooting through his entire machine body, Robin scowled at Grima, still holding onto the activated Monado.

"Don't. touch. my. boyfriend!" He yelled. Knowing that the legendary Sword of the Bionis could hurt her badly, even in the grasp of one who wasn't its chosen wielder, Grima decided to back off, disappearing into the darkness. She knew that she had done enough here for now, even if she had failed to completely subjugate Shulk yet. It wouldn't take much effort to force upon him that last bit of magic he needed to completely fall under her control.

Speaking of which, Shulk quickly snapped out of his spell before realizing that Robin was standing there with Shulk's own sword active and electricity zapping through his entire body. "ROBIN!" The Monado's chosen wielder jumped onto his boyfriend, deliberately trying to knock the red blade out of his grasp. The tactician yelped with pain upon being jumped on as he fell backward and the Monado spiraled out of his hands before snapping shut. It took a moment before Robin moved again, finally moving his arms up to wrap around Shulk's body.

"...S-Shulk..." He was practically sobbing into the younger male's sweater. "I was so... afraid that... Grima... she actually..." Before he could continue, Shulk squeezed him tighter.

"I thought that she was going to succeed too..." The seer whispered back. "I had completely lost my ability to fight back against her... You saved me..." Chrom cleared his throat just then.

"Shulk, you may want to look at yourself in a mirror..." He stated, trying to snap the blond back to reality. It seemed to work, as he got off of Robin and started looking around for some kind of reflective surface. Robin also sat up and tried to figure out what the Exalt was talking about. It didn't take him long before he saw it too, heart sinking into his chest.

"Oh no..." The tactician whispered fearfully. "Shulk... your eyes..." The Homs directed his gaze toward Robin, looking apprehensive when he spoke.

"...What's wrong with my eyes, Robin?"

"...They're red." Robin had a terrible sense of deja vu as he looked into the transformed gaze of the man he loved. Instead of their usual blue color with a greenish tinge to the rings that surrounded his pupils, they were now more of a magenta color with blood red rings circling the pupils. He had seen this color before in his recurring nightmare. Every time the heir turned around to face Robin while the white haired male was crawling upon the grass, his eyes had been that exact same hue. Did that mean the nightmare was a step closer to becoming reality? Shulk looked crestfallen as he spoke up again.

"No..." His voice was barely audible. "If my eyes have changed color, there's no telling what else her spell changed about me... She could easily reappear and force me to kill you two..."

"In that case, we're not doing ourselves any favors by sticking around here." Chrom chimed in. "Grima could easily jump us while we're stuck in this place. Let's get out of here." Both Robin and Shulk agreed, helping themselves to their feet. Shulk then bent down and picked up his weapon. Before he went to return it to his back, however, the Monado wielder took a moment to lob off the shackles that were attached to his and the other two men's bodies still. The last thing they needed was getting grabbed again thanks to those stupid things. Afterward, the blond threw his sword onto his back. The second it was reattached, his eyes began to glow. Instead of the usual blue hue, however, his eyes were bright purple. Also unusual was the fact that he could perfectly see everything that was going on in the vision - he had no issues seeing himself, Chrom, and Robin being attacked by the two cultist brothers, who had their hands joined and together cast a wall of purple flames around the three, similar to what had happened back in the cave.

"...Whoa, what on Bionis?" Shulk staggered slightly once his vision had ended, a hand finding its way to his forehead. "I had a vision just now... but I saw everything perfectly, albeit with a purple hue instead of the usual blue..."

"Did Grima... give you the ability to use your foresight powers outside of the mansion and Bionis?" Robin wondered. What did that mean? Was Grima planning to use Shulk's foresight to assist her with her conquest of this realm? It made sense to use that power he possessed to her advantage, at least.

"I'm more worried about what I actually saw." The seer replied, hands now on his hips. "Those brothers are going to be upon us soon. They're planning to work together to trap us in a circle of purple fire not unlike what we saw back in that crypt."

"Then let's not stick around." Robin replied, immediately resuming their attempt to escape. Chrom and Shulk quickly ran along behind him. They hung back behind their magic wielding friend to avoid getting hit with his Mjolnirs. They weren't supercharged like that one that destroyed the group of brigands back in the first Plegian town they helped out at, but it was enough to kill the oncoming men and free up the path.

* * *

Several minutes later, the three men had made it out of the building unscathed, which Robin was not surprised to realize was the Dragon's Table. Shulk bristled as he looked back at the familiar structure.

"...Ugh..." He grunted, red eyes leering at the building. "That's twice I've been held captive in this place now... I mean, it makes sense that we're at this place, but still!" Just then, a feminine voice came from behind the three males.

"Evildoers, beware!" The girl announced. Everybody turned their heads to notice that there was a girl with short blue hair and darker blue and silver armor riding upon a white pegasus. She was pointing a spear at them. "I am a hero of ju -- Father?!" The girl lowered her weapon the moment she locked eyes with Chrom. The Exalt grinned upon seeing the familiar face.

"Cynthia!" He shouted. "Am I surprised to see you here! What in Naga's name are you doing at the Dragon's Table, anyway?"

"...I thought Mother was going to be here! I wanted to rescue Mother!" The girl replied. "I wasn't expecting to see you here too! ...Why are you even here anyway?"

"Your father, me, and my friend here just escaped captivity from that place." Robin answered, stepping forward. This caused Cynthia to gasp and nearly fall off her pegasus.

"What?!" She shrieked. "Father, you were being held prisoner in there this whole time?! Were you kidnapped from the castle too?!" Chrom shook his head.

"No, I was apprehended later along with my friends here." He answered. "That reminds me... Over there in the horns is actually Robin. He was turned into a half machine, but he's still the same tactical genius he always was. As for the other man by my side, he's Shulk. He's a close friend of Robin's from another realm." Shulk nodded his head.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Cynthia." The Monado wielder offered a hand for the princess to shake. She did so briskly, eyes focused on the weapon that hung from his back.

"Wow, that's a pretty cool weapon you've got there!" She chirped. "I've never seen a weapon that color before! It is a weapon, right? Some kind of funny looking axe?" The seer quickly reached back to draw the Monado off his back, allowing Cynthia to get a better look at it.

"It's a sword, actually." He explained. "The sides flip down to reveal a blade of energy in the middle, which is capable of causing a great deal of damage. It's a very reliable weapon." Shulk didn't want to mention that it also allowed him to see the future, especially when he wasn't quite sure how much his visions had been affected by the spell that Grima had placed upon him besides their increased clarity.

"That is a cool weapon!" Cynthia responded with a grin. "I wish I had a weapon that cool!" Just then, the sound of another voice clearing their throat could be heard.

"If I may interrupt..." A deeper female voice than Cynthia's came from seemingly nowhere. After a second, a woman with long blue hair in silver and blue armor with a gray butterfly shaped shield attached to her arm leaped off the back of the pegasus. Shulk recognized the individual immediately.

"Lucina!" He stated happily. "I didn't realize you were there!" Lucina raised her eyebrows as she looked into the scarlet gaze of the individual who had addressed her, taking a few seconds before she shook her head slightly.

"...I'm afraid I have no recollection as to who you are." She stated. "Have we met... Shulk, I believe Father said your name was?" Realizing how awkward the situation was about to get, Robin hurried forward and pulled Shulk back.

"Ah, sorry, he's heard about you from the stories I've told, is all. He just recognized you from my description." After an awkward chuckle, the tactician spun Shulk around so brown eyes met red. He then started whispering harshly to his boyfriend. "Shulk, that's not the Lucina you know!" He hissed. "This Lucina never participated in the Super Smash Brothers Tournament! She never met you!" Realizing his mistake, Shulk blushed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Eheheh... Right... Sorry about that..." He backpedaled. "Robin's said a lot of great things about you and I just couldn't resist saying hello upon finally meeting you... My apologies for making things so awkward..."

"...All right then." Lucina nodded slowly. "Perhaps we can finally get going. We are still standing directly outside of the Dragon's Table, after all. Surely we're gathering the attentions of Grimleal inside." She then turned to Chrom. "Father, you didn't by any chance see Mother in there, did you?" The Exalt shook his head.

"No, last I saw of her, she was sealed within a stone tomb..." He answered. "Of course, it was actually a trap set up to capture us three. It's possible that the rest of the Shepherds that were with us might have gotten in to save your mother, though." Either that or Sumia had been stolen away again by Grima when she captured the three men. There was no way to know. The heroes hadn't checked the Dragon's Table thoroughly enough, wishing to get out of there before Grima attacked again.

"We should try to find the other Shepherds, then!" Cynthia piped up. "With all of us working together, surely we'll be able to save Mother!" She then raised a hand into the air enthusiastically. Robin nodded his head.

"Cynthia has a point." He added on. "We have strength in numbers. Let's find the other Shepherds and then come back here to the Dragon's Table to look for Sumia if she isn't already with them." Everybody nodded in agreement. And with that, the five heroes set off into the desert to look for the rest of their entourage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5472 words. And now Shulk has a transformation as well, even if it's not nearly as severe as Robin's. Just how much was he transformed and how will it affect things in the future? Stay tuned to find out! Notes:
> 
> 1\. Meet Robin's third (fourth if you've read Hearts in His Eyes) control schema, Remote Mode! Light gray with dark gray cross hair pupils, Remote Mode allows Robin to deactivate his main body in order to temporarily put full control into the drones he keeps on his back. It's useful for spying, intel collection, and other things (such as spraying fire onto reinforced chains to weaken them, as seen here). But of course, he can't control what happens to the main body while flying the drones.
> 
> 2\. Remember those two cultist assholes from Desert Storm? Yep, they're back. And they have not forgotten what happened then, including Shulk taking off the hand of one of them with Grima's cursed fang sword.
> 
> 3\. What Grima was saying about there being a difference between Reflet's mother and Robin's mother is a half truth. As I was kind of joking with Aria, it's more like with each different realm, a different sperm of Validar's wins out getting to fertilize the egg that becomes the Avatar. In that sense, Robin and Reflet are more like brother and sister than alternate dimension copies of each other. They're still not twins though, as Robin's two years older than Reflet.
> 
> 4\. Also, in case anybody is wondering, Grima does NOT love Shulk. All she wants is his power. She's also manipulative, as her attempt to get him to submit to her faster using kissing proves.
> 
> 5\. Robin's not getting off unscathed from using the Monado to save Shulk. He managed to control it temporarily with pure willpower (and the extra strength of Attack Mode, considering he was **_pissed_** at Grima for kissing his boyfriend), but he did end up causing permanent damage to himself that will be revealed in time.


	6. A Machine's Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After escaping the Dragon's Table and meeting up with Cynthia and Lucina, Chrom, Robin, and Shulk are searching the Plegian Desert to look for the rest of the Shepherds. Once they're found, Chrom plans to lead everybody against the Dragon's Table if Sumia happens to not be with them. Will the Shepherds meet up again? Will everybody have to return to the Dragon's Table to save the queen?

If Cynthia's pegasus was only able to carry more than two people at a time, the search would have been over a lot faster. However, there were five individuals in the group right now, and one of them happened to be a fairly heavy Mechon. As a result, most of the group walked. Cynthia, on the other hand, decided to take to the air in order to get a better vantage point so as to hopefully spot the other Shepherds from a distance. Lucina stayed on the ground with the men, figuring her sister's steed would be faster if she didn't have to deal with the extra weight of another person, much less somebody in full armor. Sure enough, the younger princess was practically flying circles around everybody else, scouting around for any sign of other people.

Meanwhile, Shulk and Robin were both having worrisome thoughts about what happened at the Dragon's Table. On Robin's end, it pained him to look into his boyfriend's eyes now, seeing as they were no longer the beautiful blue they used to be, but a malevolent red. Robin knew it was all his fault for failing to free the three of them in a more organized manner, or at the very least a way that didn't result in leaving long chains attached to their limbs. The imagery of Shulk and Grima passionately kissing one another that the ivory haired mage had returned to after retrieving his and Shulk's weapons also plagued his memories, replaying over and over again in his mind. He knew perfectly well that the seer was under a spell when that was happening, but it still bothered him immensely that the man he loved was forced into such a fiery moment of passion, and that Shulk was answering each of the dragon's advances with smooches of equal tenacity. The thing that rattled him the most, however, was the fact that Robin himself had never been kissed so passionately by Shulk. He wanted to be on the other end of those hungry pecks of pure, unfiltered love. Of course, Robin would never hex the man he loved into doing something like that as Grima had, but that still didn't sate his hunger for that kind of ardent devotion.

On the other hand, Shulk's own mind was full of worries when it came to Robin. When the Monado wielder had finally been freed from the Fell Dragon's spell over him, the first thing he saw was a furious tactician brandishing the Sword of the Bionis, with arcs of electricity running up and down his Mechon body. Even though Robin's anger was the most prevalent emotion at that moment, it was still impossible to ignore the pain that was also visible, between the clouded eyes, gritted teeth, and the wide stance. Had the Homs not tackled Robin to the ground, Shulk had to wonder if the Monado would have continued to shock the mage until his mechanical body shut down completely, essentially killing him. Not only that, but what damage was there to Robin's body thanks to wielding the dangerous weapon? Dunban's right arm had been completely ruined after he used the sword to fight off the Mechon in Sword Valley, so it was certainly possible that there had been irreparable harm caused by the Monado. Of course, Robin's body was mostly mechanical as it was, so perhaps he wasn't nearly as affected as the dark haired Homs, but surely some kind of damage had been done, had it?

There were several moments of silence while the thoughts danced through their heads before Shulk began the conversation as he wrapped his arms around one of the tactician's mechanical limbs. "...Is everything all right?" He asked quietly, gently holding onto the prosthesis as they walked behind Chrom. Scarlet eyes were focused directly ahead rather than looking over at the smaller male he was addressing.

Robin leaned up against Shulk, pressing his head to the blond's shoulder, trying not to let his metal horns get in the way. He was also looking straight ahead rather than into his boyfriend's eyes. "...I'd be lying if I said everything was all right, Shulk..." The tactician finally answered. "I'm really worried about you."

"That makes two of us..." The Homs knew that Robin wouldn't be able to feel fleshy fingers gently running up and down the palm of the metal limb that was being held in his arms, but the movement was enough to soothe Shulk's mind a little as he spoke. "I'm worried about you too. You don't feel any different after being electrocuted by the Monado, do you?"

"...I'm feeling a little numb on what remains of my human skin near my arm joints, but other than that, I'm fine." Robin insisted. He assumed the numbness was caused by those parts of his skin being the closest to the source of the electricity, and that if he had human flesh on his arms still, they would probably be hurting right now. In that sense, Robin was fortunate to have his Mechon body. However, Shulk would have to look later to see if any damage had been done to his machine systems. The tactician didn't feel anything wrong, but that didn't mean for certain that he was okay. After all, there could be a problem that wasn't immediately apparent right now, but could exacerbate itself with time. After a quick nod of his head, Robin continued. "And what of your body?"

"I'm all right." Shulk answered. He felt almost completely normal, in fact. Had Chrom and Robin never mentioned that Shulk's eyes had changed color, the teenager would never have guessed that to be the case. Besides his new eye color and the improvements made to his visions of the future, the seer couldn't feel anything different. Perhaps Grima's magic only took hold and changed him whenever she was nearby? Would he be powerless against Grima's control and throw himself at her without even realizing it if the Fell Dragon snuck up on him? Would it be safe for him to go back into The Dragon's Table if the Shepherds had to raid the place again to find Sumia, considering it had essentially become Grima's headquarters now? Shulk really didn't want to find out.

"If you insist..." Robin stated, trying to build up courage for what he wanted to say next. He really hoped that Shulk's opinion of him wouldn't change after what he was going to say. He took a moment to breathe deeply before he stood up straight and placed his hands on the taller male's shoulders, stopping Shulk by spinning his body around so they were facing each other. The tactician's stomach lurched as he looked up into the bold red eyes now possessed by the man he loved, and it took him a couple seconds to recover from that before he finally said what was on his mind. "...Look, Shulk... There's something I want you to do for me when we get time to ourselves."

Shulk blinked twice worriedly after hearing the beginning of the proposition he was being given, noticing that desperation was staring to make itself apparent in Robin's eyes. "...Yes? What is it?" He replied slowly.

"...I admit it, I'm a bit jealous of Grima..." The tactician sighed, looking down to avoid Shulk's judging eyes. "My heart ached with not only fear for your sake, but also jealousy at the situation when I saw you and her kissing each other with such aggressive passion. I'm aware that she was using those kisses to get you to fall under her control faster, but..."

"Say no more." Shulk smiled as he took a step closer and tightly wrapped his arms around Robin's mechanical body. "I understand what you're asking. I'll let you kiss me like that too, but only if you agree to two things." The ivory haired male picked his head up again, looking up at his boyfriend with confusion.

"Two things? What two things?"

"No chains and no mind control magic." The teenager gave a wide grin. "Can you agree to that?" Robin stared at Shulk in a daze for a moment, but, once everything sank in, a smile that matched Shulk's own in joy found its way to his face as he threw his arms tightly around the man he loved.

"Of course." He chuckled. "I don't need magic to convince you to return the affection, after all~" The fact that Shulk had agreed to the proposition in the first place was proof enough that the seer felt as strongly for Robin as the tactician did for him. There was no doubt in the ivory haired male's mind anymore (not that there was any to begin with, actually): he wanted to be with Shulk forever. S-Support, Pink Affinity, marriage, whatever one wanted to call it - Robin wanted to devote his life to the Homs in his arms.

"...Are you two coming or not?" Lucina's voice snapped the two men out of their emotional moment, bringing them back to reality. Red met brown as the young men exchanged embarrassed glances before turning to catch up with the princess and her father. They would have time to uphold the promise later.

* * *

Thanks to Cynthia flying around above, the five met up with the rest of the Shepherds surprisingly fast. They seemed to have been moving toward the Dragon's Table anyway and were more than happy to meet up with the three men again as well as the addition of the two future princesses.

"Chrom! Buddy!" Vaike practically tackled the Exalt to the sand upon seeing him again. "The Vaike was so worried about you guys when you disappeared behind that wall!"

"We were  _all_  really worried about you three!" Ricken added a moment later. "We practically tore down that entire place looking for you guys, but we couldn't find anything." Robin placed a metal hand on his chin as he pondered what the red haired sage was saying.

"...Nothing at all, huh?" He repeated. "So that means Grima must have taken not only the three of us, but Sumia as well..."

"What?!" Albaer looked ready to whack somebody over the head with his axe. "Grima? What the hell does that damn dragon have anything to do with this?!"

Chrom sighed as he crossed his arms, getting ready to explain. "Believe it or not, Grima was the one who set up that trap back there." He lectured, not caring if nobody in the group believed him. "You see, it wasn't the same Grima that I defeated a while back, but a Grima from another Outrealm. This Grima takes on the appearance of a woman." After that, he gave a brief rundown of everything that happened after he, Robin, and Shulk had disappeared into the other side of the tomb, including their capture and escape from the Dragon's Table. Shulk averted his gaze by the time the explanation was finished, not wanting the others to see his eyes. Thankfully nobody bothered him about it.

Instead, everybody was in agreement about what needed to happen: they needed to go back to the Dragon's Table and look for Sumia there. Hopefully the missing queen was still okay, considering how likely it was that she had been apprehended for the sole purpose of luring Chrom out. The only one who wasn't super enthusiastic about returning to that place was, predictably, Shulk.

"I'm not going into the Dragon's Table." He stated firmly, crossing his arms. "Grima wants me, and I'm not serving myself up on a silver platter by setting foot in that building." Nadav, who was nearby to begin with, nudged the blond swordsman so that he nearly fell down from the unexpected push.

"Do you seriously think that you'll be safe on your own out here in Plegia?" The assassin hissed. "If the Fell Dragon wants your head, she'll call all of Plegia to hunt you down. You're safest with us."

"Yeah, that's right!" Vaike chimed in immediately after. "We're the Shepherds, the greatest fighters in all of Ylisse! No way is Teach gonna let some stupid dragon get her hands on you - any of you, really!"

"Vaike and Nadav are right." Robin said with a smile. "You'll be safest in the middle of our formation, so that Grima will have to get through a bunch of us if she wants to get to you." He then walked over and wrapped his hands around both of Shulk's, whose arms had uncrossed in order to save himself from falling over thanks to Nadav's shoving. "I'll personally protect you using my green eyed mode if need be. Grima will have to cut through my Mechon armor if she wants to even get a chance to wrap her dirty claws around you." The Homs' eyes sparkled as he smiled back at the cyborg in front of him.

"I entrust you with my life." He said. "I know you'll keep me safe." Chrom nodded his head once Shulk had finished speaking.

"In that case, let's head back to the Dragon's Table." He announced the group's orders. "We're going to get Sumia back this time, I just know it!" The Exalt unsheathed his holy sword, Falchion, and raised it skyward. Many of the other Shepherds raised their weapons as well, cheering loudly about how they were going to save their queen. After everybody calmed down, the blue haired male walked over to Robin and looked him straight in the face. "I'm counting on you." He said. "I would only ask the finest tactician to lead these Shepherds to victory. Are you up to the challenge?" The tactician smiled confidently.

"Of course I am." He stated, giving a thumbs up. "I wouldn't be the finest tactician as you proclaimed if I backed down from a strategical challenge like this! Between my tactics and the strength of our men and women, we'll get Sumia out of the Dragon's Table for sure!" Another group of cheers from the Shepherds could be heard with weapons being brandished about. As Robin lowered his arm from the gesture, however, his eyes suddenly grew wide for half a second as he grasped that elbow with his opposite hand, pulling the sleeve of his robe down to look at his joint.

"...Robin?" Ricken asked, moving over to get a better look. "Are you all right? Do you perhaps need to be he... Wait a second..." The redhead was about to ask the half Mechon if he needed to be healed on a joint that was purely made out of metal. The small male's face quickly started to turn the color of his hair as he tilted his head down to try hiding his shame behind his oversized hat. "...Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"Oww..." The tactician grunted after pushing his robe out of the way so he could look at what happened better. "This arm is a prosthesis and I still felt that. Let's see just how bad... Dear gods!" Robin's eyes widened as he saw that his lower arm was just about ready to roll right off its ball hinge if he wasn't careful. Some of the metal that made up his arm was worn through, as if it had rusted and aged a whole lot since the last time he checked. And the ivory haired Mechon knew why it was like that - the Monado. The weapon was specifically designed to cut through Mechon armor with ease, and considering he was made out of that exact stuff, it was a no brainer that he had taken serious damage. Robin wanted to know just how badly his body had been messed up, and so he pushed back the edges of his robes. The epaulet cord had been snapped by one of the Grimleal priest brothers back when his body was being examined to see just how much human flesh remained, so the ivory haired mage didn't have to worry about undoing the cord prior to throwing back his attire. In doing so, Robin discovered that the rest of his body wasn't faring much better than his arms, with spots worn through his metal armor or rusty pieces visible all over. The tactician gasped as he threw his robes back into place and immediately buttoned up several of the clasps so that he didn't need to see the damage anymore.

There was no hiding it from Shulk, however. The seer's heart sunk the moment he saw how terrible Robin's condition was. There was no way he would be able to withstand going into battle with his body as banged up as it was. Worse even was the fact that it was Shulk's own trusted weapon that had caused such terrible damage, there was no doubt about it. Slowly the Homs stepped forward, a slightly disgusted expression on his face.

"Looks like you'll be joining me in the middle of the formation." The Monado wielder insisted, crossing his arms. "I'm not allowing you to go into battle looking like you're going to fall apart just by being tapped in the wrong spot."

"Shulk, I'll be fine." Robin shook his head, refusing to even look the blond in the eyes. He felt immensely bad for worrying his boyfriend.

"No way, pal!" Vaike took a step forward. "Teach doesn't want you falling apart on us! Stay to the middle and out of battle!"

"Vaike's right." Chrom nodded his head slowly. "I need you leading us more than I need you fighting by my side. We're all capable fighters, so we'll be all right." Robin looked down at his hands.

"...All right. I'd rather not shut down either." After all, he had no idea if he would just outright shut down and never turn back on or go into some kind of sleep mode. He didn't want to find out one way or another, however. "I'll stay to the middle of the formation and guide from here."

"All right, with that settled, let's get heading back to the Dragon's Table... for real this time." There was another set of cheers as Chrom spun around and started leading the group back in the direction that he came from with the tactician and the seer. Those two were now tucked into the middle of the formation, where they would be safest from attack. Either way, all of the Shepherds were going to help rescue the missing queen.

* * *

Back at the Dragon's Table, there were already a slew of sorcerers set up in front of the building. The fact that there was a group of men stationed to protect the Dragon's Table was a pretty good sign that there was still something worthwhile hiding within - more than likely the Queen of Ylisse. Gaspar the sorcerer, the only one in the group capable of using dark tomes himself, decided to combat the Mires that were being thrown at the Shepherds with Mires of his own from afar as the rest of the group hurried in to close the distance between themselves and the Grimleal.

One particular thing that Robin decided to do during the assault in order to keep as much stress off his dilapidated body was to hover around using the drones on his back, as they were flight capable to begin with. That way, he wasn't pounding his feet on the ground (softness of the sand be damned), making an effort to preserve his machine body's remaining integrity. The sorcerer's Mire magic softened up the Grimleal troops before the others could get close, and then the rest of the team worked together to take the enemies down once they were in range.

"Yeah, there's no stoppin' us!" Vaike shouted as he grabbed a Grimleal who was nearby and held the struggling individual up by their cloak, letting him dangle off the ground. He then used his free hand to cup over his mouth and yell out for the tactician behind him. "Yo, Rob! Catch!" The sorcerer then flew through the air toward the flying Mechon, who caught the guy before he fell back down to the ground. Still holding onto the enemy mage while suspended in the air with the drones, Robin yelled back at the man who had tossed him skyward in the first place.

"Vaike, what in Naga's name are you doing?!" He hissed. "I wasn't prepared to catch a guy! I could have busted a joint from how quickly I needed to move my arms just now! That and I seriously am _not_ fond of that nickname anymore!" After sighing, Robin redirected his attention to the guy he was holding onto. He looked immensely distressed.

"W-what kind of monster ARE you?!" The poor fellow stuttered. Between the metal horns on the tactician's face as well as his ability to fly, the guy was terrified of Robin. Of course, seeing as the ivory haired male was a genius strategist, this guy's fear could be easily exploited for information. A cunning smirk found its way to Robin's face as he began interrogating the man.

"I am a monster that can very easily torment and torture you ceaselessly, far more horrible than the Fell Dragon Grima~" He taunted. "If you give me the information I desire, I will spare you from my torture..."

"Please, I'll tell you anything!" The sorcerer pleaded. "Anything at all! Just don't kill me!"

"Where is the Queen of Ylisse?"

"She's inside the building here! The white haired lady who's taken charge of the place has her as a prisoner!" As expected, Grima had Sumia. That settled it, the group had to go into the Dragon's Table and settle it with the dragon once and for all, simultaneously making sure she didn't kill anybody or take Shulk hostage. It was going to be quite the task for Robin, but he was sure he could do it.

"Thank you for your cooperation. I shall let you free now." The Mechon floated away from the group of Shepherds and gently placed the sorcerer on the sand, allowing him to run away in fear of the flying machine monster that spooked him. With that out of the way, Robin turned back to the rest of the group. "Well, you heard what he said."

"Grima really does have Sumia..." Chrom growled. "I'll save her! She's not getting away with this!" The crowd cheered loudly yet again and then redirected their attention to the Dragon's Table, getting ready to storm the place in order to recover the queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3752 words. Next chapter's going to be pretty interesting to write, as it's largely going to be done in Fire Emblem style. Anyway, I think there's only one thing to note this time:
> 
> 1\. Yes, I am not so subtly making fun of Pepper calling the male Robin "Rob" in her universe. Not only that, but she insists on calling my Robin "Rob" on Skype when he doesn't go by that nickname.
> 
> Why doesn't he like being called "Rob"? It's a direct result of being turned into a Mechon. R.O.B. is called "Rob" by everybody, and Robin really doesn't like being compared to a robot, especially now that he's half robot himself. It's dehumanizing to him. Literally.


	7. A Machine's Finest Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seventeen heroes enter the Dragon's Table to rescue the Queen of Ylisse from the grasp of the Fell Dragon Grima. They are led by Robin, the half-Mechon tactician, and spearheaded by Chrom, the king and Exalt. Will the Shepherds successfully save Sumia, or will they get obliterated by Grima's forces?

The Shepherds filed into the Dragon's Table one by one, taking positions near the door as Robin made his final preparations to launch the attack on the Grimleal. It was already established that he and Shulk would take the middle of the formation, and so the others gathered around those two. Chrom found himself near the middle of the formation as well in order to talk with Robin easily. The last thing that he wanted was for the Grimleal to hear the plans before they could be carried out and have an easy counterattack launched against them. The Exalt felt confident leaving his two daughters at the front of the formation to lead the attack. Once everybody was in place, Chrom began talking quietly to Robin.

"So, Grandmaster Tactician of Ylisse..." The blue haired male gave his friend a small smirk. "Any tips to give while everybody's still gathered here?" Robin smiled back at the young king.

"Well, I don't know for sure what we're up against, but I'm certain that there are far more Grimleal than there are us Shepherds. Don't be surprised to see Grimleal coming out of the literal woodwork of this place. Keep your eyes peeled and your weapons on hand at all times." The tactician then turned to Shulk, who in turn nodded when he noticed that Robin's chocolate colored eyes were focused on him. "Shulk, if you happen to get a vision of the future, please inform whomever is involved as soon as you can. I know that Grima's spell allowed you to see your visions unhindered here on my world, so we can use that to our advantage."

"Grima was surely trying to exploit that for her own devices..." The blond Homs frowned, thinking about what had nearly happened. Had Robin waited much longer to save him, those upgraded visions of the future he now possessed would be used to help the evil dragon with her conquest of this realm. The fact that the tactician had acted so quickly resulted in there being seventeen Shepherds in their task force now instead of sixteen. Now Grima's actions were going to bite her in the rear now that Shulk had the ability to help his friends. He would make sure they were protected from harm before it happened.

A large group of Sorcerers, Sages, Berserkers, and Assassins gathered into the room where the Shepherds had gathered, all drawing their weapons to fight off the Ylisseans. The heroes were more than ready to take on the group of attackers, even though it quickly became clear there were more Plegians than Ylisseans, as well as plenty of backup for the former. Either way, the Shepherds were undaunted. They were an elite group of heroes who came to save their queen, and they weren't planning on leaving without her.

Cynthia swooped ahead first with her Brave Lance in hand riding upon her pegasus' back, striking down a Sorcerer before moving back into formation with her Galeforce ability, preferring to stick close to the rest of the group. The last thing she needed was to get completely surrounded by Grimleal so that she wouldn't be able to move anywhere and they could whittle down the endurance of the princess and her pegasus until she was killed.

Vaike and Ricken partnered up together, keeping a bit of distance in order to attack some of the Berserkers who couldn't counterattack with just their axes. Seeing as Vaike was a Warrior, he had training with a bow. As a result, he pulled out a Killer Bow and shot at one of the enemies with it, piercing his heart with a deftly aimed arrow shot and causing him to fall in a heap. Ricken had his Bolganone tome in his hands, just in case Vaike happened to need backup. Right now that didn't happen to be the case, but perhaps later the blond Warrior would need it.

And speaking of partners, Robin and Shulk did the same routine. They focused more on clearing out the sidelines, seeing as they didn't want to get in the thick of the action. Seeing as Robin was a bit on the fragile side thanks to the damage done to his Mechon body, the two agreed that Shulk would take as well as dish out the attacks and Robin would be on Dual Support duty for now. Therefore, it was the Monado wielder who hurried forward and took a slash at a Grimleal Sage, downing him with ease. Shulk silently thanked the gods that he could help support the Shepherds with his weapon, as its restriction against harming Homs, High Entia, and Nopon didn't apply to humans. After taking out the enemy, the seer looked back at Robin, giving him a reassuring thumbs up. The tactician continued to float in place with his Levin Sword in hand as he returned the gesture with a smile, preferring not to try giving a thumbs up again in case he screwed up his arm more like he did back when the Shepherds had regathered in the desert.

A third pair consisted of Chrom and Lucina. They both bravely wielded their Falchions, working amazingly well together to take out an Assassin. Chrom leaped into action first with his sword, and then Lucina quickly followed up by finishing the Grimleal off with her sword. Considering all the adventures the blue haired father and daughter had gone through in order to even be standing here, it made sense that they worked well together. Silent nods of affirmation to how well they were fighting side by side were exchanged before both of the nobles turned their attention back to the battle around them.

Seeing as they were close friends, Albaer and Nadav partnered up themselves. They both fought as classes that their enemies were also fighting as, and as such, they were well aware of the weaknesses their foes possessed. Albaer pulled a Tomahawk out as Nadav prepared to support his buddy with a Silver Bow. The Berserker hurled his Tomahawk at the forehead of an enemy Assassin, doing considerable damage before it somehow boomeranged back to his hand. The Ylissean Assassin then finished him off with one last silver arrow to the skull.

All of the other Shepherds partnered up with one another as they made considerable progress taking out a whole slew of the enemies, but there were still far more of the foes than there were Ylisseans. Once everybody had a chance to attack, the angry Grimleal launched their counterattacks. Mires were flung around at the heroes thanks to a group of Sorcerers that had pulled back in order to attack from afar with the magic that had the incredible range. Most of the Mire spells were aimed at Chrom, surprisingly enough. Apparently the Grimleal just really wanted to take out the Exalt. Between the king's agility and Lucina helping to protect her father, the spells didn't do much damage to Chrom. He silently thanked that the enemies were trying to focus him down rather than, say, Cynthia who was all by herself.

None of the Shepherds ended up taking damage that was considerable enough to really worry about, and so it was time for the Ylisseans to act once more. "Switch things up!" Robin barked out to the rest of the army under his command. He didn't care if the supporting fighter of the duos became the leader and vice versa or the leader used a different type of weapon. All that mattered to him was making sure the enemies didn't get wise to one particular style of fighting that any of the Shepherds used. The element of surprise was something important to have in a battle that was stacked against you, after all.

And so, seeing as Shulk only had one weapon his person in the form of the Monado, Robin insisted he take to the front. The seer was worried about the fragile condition of the ivory haired male's body, but Robin insisted that everything would be all right, and that he was sure if something bad was going to happen to him, Shulk would get a vision warning him ahead of time. The blond bristled slightly, trying to warn Robin that relying on visions of the future was not wise, especially considering the fact that he had no control over whether he actually foresaw anything or not. There had been plenty of disasters that he hadn't seen prior to them actually happening, after all. The Monado was far from omniscient.

Nevertheless, Robin brandished his Levin Sword and eyed a nearby Grimleal Sage that looked like he was going to try healing a Berserker nearby that had taken considerable damage but wasn't dead yet. He didn't want this turning into a battle of attrition, and so the healer needed to get dispatched quickly. "Shulk, back me up here." Robin stated as he flew forward so that he was a short distance away from the Sage. "You have an Art that can hit opponents from a short distance away, correct?"

"I have Stream Edge, yes..." Shulk answered, raising an eyebrow. "What exactly are you planning to do?" A confident smile found its way to the tactician's face.

"You've only seen this weapon used in Smash matches, haven't you?" The Mechonized male chuckled, raising the lightning bolt shaped sword in his hand to about shoulder height so the other could see it easily from where he was standing. "Let's just say... that's not the only way to use a Levin Sword. In fact, I much prefer doing this!" With that, Robin raised the Levin Sword skyward as a bolt of lightning jumped from the tip toward the Sage. She shrieked upon being hit with the energy attack, but hadn't quite been defeated yet, which caused Robin to look back into his boyfriend's scarlet eyes. "Now, Shulk! Use your Art!"

Shulk was temporarily distracted by both the Levin Sword's attack as well as the fact that Robin's eyes were still their usual brown color, as if he was holding back despite how desperate this situation was. However, upon hearing his name, the blond shook his head and flipped open his sword. The Ether beam changed color from its usual blue to pink as he took a step back in preparation to use the move. " _ **STREAM... EDGE!**_ " He yelled a second later, stepping forward once more as he slashed horizontally with his legendary sword, a fan-shaped beam of pink energy firing out from the Monado as it swished through the air. That finally did the Sage in, causing her to yell out in agony once the pink Ether collided with her body and sending her to the ground. Robin smiled after the woman stopped moving.

"That was pretty great!" He congratulated, still hovering in place next to the Homs. "I'm surprised you don't use that Art in the tournament in order to have some kind of projectile attack. I'm sure you'd be even stronger if you could fire off Stream Edges across half the stage." Shulk shrugged.

"It's a bit late for that now, though..." The blond replied. "Are you sure you'll be fine against an onslaught of attacks that might happen to you though? Especially considering your body is more fragile than normal thanks to the damage the Monado caused..."

"Shulk, I'm sure I'll be all right..." Robin answered. "You haven't had any visions that have warned you about me getting killed by Grimleal, have you?"

"...No, but..."

"In that case, I'll be fine." And with that, the tactician turned to take another look at the other Shepherds who continued to fight as hard as they could against the group of cultists that were trying to do them in. More of the Grimleal went down to the Ylisseans, and it was clear that despite the numbers of the Grimleal, the Shepherds were just that much better at fighting. Within several back and forth sessions of battling, the cultists had backed down and were starting to head farther into the Table in order to keep their numbers intact.

At least, that's what Robin thought was going on. As soon as most of the Grimleal had bolted, Shulk's eyes started to glow purple. In his vision, he saw tons of lightning raining down from above onto the Shepherds, killing almost everybody. The only three who were spared from the powerful display were Chrom, who was on the ground barely alive, Robin, whose mechanical body was throwing off tons of sparks and he couldn't move, and Shulk, who was quickly grabbed by a shadow that came out of the ground and dragged over to Grima. The last thing the seer heard before his vision faded out was his own name being screamed loudly by the tactician.

"...Everybody, Grima's pulling her troops back so that she can kill us all with a deluge of lightning!" The Homs shouted, getting everybody's attention. "We can't stay here and celebrate driving the Grimleal back! We have to hurry in after them!" Lucina expressed surprise at what she was being told here, as it seemed to be the opposite of what had happened prior with her father, the tactician, and the seer all being taken prisoner before.

"She really wants to kill _all_ of us?" The blue haired princess wondered. "None of us are going to be kept alive?" Shulk shook his head.

"The only person she's planning to spare is me, for obvious reasons." There was a twinge of regret in the Monado wielder's voice. "By some stroke of luck, Chrom and Robin will survive, but just barely... It wouldn't take a lot of effort for Grimleal to come out and kill both of them when they're vastly weakened." Robin lowered his head and spoke slowly.

"Grima already told me that the only reason I had been captured before was so that I couldn't lead the Shepherds against her..." The tactician wished he had a hood on his Grandmaster cloak so that he could hide his face as he spoke. "I was told that because I have the body of a Mechon now, I'm almost useless to her. Of course she would attempt to kill me with the rest of the Shepherds... I'm not surprised at all..." Chrom quickly hurried over and grabbed one of Robin's hands, carefully raising it so he could feel the joint move, but not fast enough to exacerbate the damage done to him by the Monado.

"Well then, Grima has no idea what she's missing out on." The blue haired king reassured. "Man or machine, you're still the greatest tactical genius in the realm. Your plans have led us to this moment. I'm sure you'll act accordingly for the best of our soldiers here now that you've been given a timely warning of what's to come." There was a long pause before the tactician nodded very sluggishly and almost mechanically, as if he was a full robot rather than partially one.

"...Yes." He said in a low voice. "I think I know what to do. The first part is obvious, though. We shouldn't stick around here, or else we're going to have death rained down upon us from above. That's what Shulk has revealed to us, after all. Once we've got Grima on the ropes, we'll just have to see what she does and act accordingly." There were nods in agreement among the Shepherds. None of them really wanted to get killed, after all. Therefore, everybody briskly started moving into the next room, filtering through a narrow passageway in order to move further into the building.

* * *

Before they managed to get through the tunnel to where it led, there was a loud, high pitched scream. Chrom immediately started pushing forward when he heard the noise, muscling by everybody else until he was the first out of the passageway into a large room with a ceiling high enough to almost reach two stories, immediately halting once out of the tunnel. The others filed in behind the Exalt and gathered around where Chrom had stopped, also staring at the center of the room. After several seconds of stunned silence, the blue haired king's voice echoed off the walls around him as he shouted a single word.

"SUMIA!" He screamed. The queen was in the middle of the room, staring back at her husband with fear in her eyes. She was unable to move, as there was a ring of needles completely surrounding her, threatening to poke into the brunette's skin if she moved even a little bit.

"Chrom!" Sumia shouted back. "Please, get out of here! You don't know what she's capable of doing! Aah!" The queen shrieked as a figure appeared from the shadows right beside her, brown eyes now staring into blood red ones.

"Now now..." Grima taunted, his own voice barely audible beneath that of his vessel, Reflet. "I've been nothing but kind to you... After all, you've done everything I've wanted and more~" The dragon reached out and placed a hand on Sumia's chin, gently holding on even as she attempted to whip her head around. "And once you've done this last thing for me, you can be free to be with your precious husband once again~"

"Tell me what you want!" Chrom yelled, taking a step forward with a hand hovering over the pommel of his trusted weapon, Falchion. "Don't you dare hurt Sumia, you damn dragon!" The white haired dragon vessel quickly turned her head so that all six of her blood red eyes stared at Chrom. She then started laughing maniacally for a second.

"You know exactly what I want, Exalt." She said, eyes then quickly darting off to the side in the direction of a certain magenta eyed swordsman. The man in question took a small step backward, slightly intimidated by the fact that he was being singled out. The other Shepherds near him took a step away, not wanting to get involved - all except one.

"Forget it!" Robin barked as he hurried between Shulk and Grima, extending his arms protectively. He raised them quickly, not even caring how fragile his condition was. The only thing that mattered right now was protecting the man he loved. "I refuse to let you have Shulk! Your obsession with him is creepy, and it's bad enough that you've transformed his body to better suit your needs!"

"You wouldn't be so nonchalant if you knew the kind of power he was capable of, failed vessel!" Grima hissed as she summoned a small vine that was twisted upon itself in a spiral into one of her hands. "But not even your machine body can save you now! _**Expiration!**_ " With that, the Fell Dragon shot dark magic at Robin, which ended up hitting him squarely in the chest. Everybody gasped as Robin collapsed immediately upon being hit by the attack.

"ROBIN!" Shulk screamed as he hurried forward and knelt over his boyfriend's body. He tried to help by using his Light Heal Art to undo some of the damage that done. However, the tactician wasn't moving at all. Tears started pouring out of the Homs' magenta eyes, as he was afraid that Robin had sacrificed himself again for Shulk's own sake. This time, however, there was no reviving the tactician with a new body. He already had his second chance.

That was a non-issue though, as Robin had survived the attack. The ivory haired mage gently rasped to Shulk to bring his ear closer so that nobody else could hear what he had to say. Though he was worried, Shulk did exactly as his boyfriend asked, staying there for several seconds while Robin whispered a plan that he had come up with. Thanks to the fact that Robin's body was mechanical, the damage was not nearly as bad as it would have been if he had a flesh body. He was putting on a facade that it had hurt more than it did. And that was part of his plan.

Not long later, Shulk rose to his feet, tears still falling from his cheeks while he turned to face the dragon who had attacked the person he greatly cared about. Nobody besides Shulk and Robin knew just what kind of condition the tactician was really in, and so they thought his despair was genuine. "R-Robin..." He sniffled. "He's going to die... I can't do this anymore..." With that, he took a step forward. "I will surrender myself. Just please... Let Sumia go. It's me you want anyway."

"Shulk, no!" Chrom spat, taking a step toward the Homs. "This isn't what Robin would want you to do! He would want you to figure out a way to get Sumia back without sacrificing yourself!"

"...Chrom." The blond teenager closed his eyes as he took another step forward. "I know what I'm doing. Please, trust me." Chrom slowly shook his head, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to talk the Monado wielder out of sacrificing himself. Therefore, he stood down. Grima began to laugh as she watched this all occur.

"So, you're going to be a good little boy and let yourself become my slave?" The dragon asked. "Come, stand beside me if this is really the choice you are making. I can even throw in the bonus of reviving your precious little tactician as a mindless Risen for you to do whatever you want with. How does that sound?" There were several seconds of silence before Shulk's footsteps could be heard padding across the room so that he now stood on the other side of Grima from Sumia. He then raised both of his hands and cupped them together behind his head before he let his eyes fall shut once more.

"...My life is yours, Grima." He said quietly. "I surrender to you." The red eyed vessel started laughing maniacally, assuming that she had won.

"Wonderful!" She immediately lowered the circle of dark magic needles that were posed around Sumia and raised them once more around Shulk, whose arms were still being held behind his head. The queen quickly ran back into Chrom's arms, literally falling into his grasp thanks to tripping over her own dress in her hurry to get back to him. The Exalt tightly held onto his wife, having missed her terribly. Lucina and Cynthia quickly threw themselves onto their parents, also having worried immensely about their mother.

"Chrom!" Sumia sobbed into her husband's shoulder. "I was so scared... I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again..." Chrom wanted to console the brunette, but another bout of Grima's laughter got his attention instead. Chrom had hardly forgotten that his wife had gone free due to the sacrifice of another, after all.

"So, how about I show you all what I've been planning to do with my agreeable little slave here?" She taunted, leaning forward so she was almost right up in Shulk's face. "I'm sure you all will like it. It's too bad Robin is dead, as I'm sure he especially would have liked to see this. Don't worry, I still plan on keeping up my end of the bargain to let you have your dear sweet Robin again as a mindless toy, my pet~"

"...What if I told you I'm not dead?" The tactician's voice echoed throughout the entire room at that moment, causing Grima to gasp and turn her head in the direction that the voice had come from. Sure enough, Robin was alive, and he was floating above everybody else's heads using his drones. There was a look of anger on his face, but his eyes were still their usual brown color. "I won't let you have Shulk!" The mechanized male quickly zoomed over the heads of the Shepherds as he swooped over to kick Grima in her side. The dragon's vessel flew through the air with after grunting from the force of the hit she just received. She landed on the ground several feet away from the spot she had been kicked from, taking a moment to get her bearings again after being smacked with a mechanical foot.

"Robin!" Shulk called out immediately after Grima landed. He then raised his arms skyward, having placed them behind his head in order to make sure they were free for this moment. The tactician nodded briskly before rising a little more into the air so that he was floating directly above Shulk. He then grasped the blond's arms and lifted him straight up out of the grasp of the needles before quickly setting him down again once he had cleared the dark magic. "The plan worked like a charm!" The Homs cheered as he gave a thumbs up to his boyfriend who was still flying above him with his drones. Magenta eyes then darted over to the blue haired Exalt as a confident smile was given. "...See? I told you I knew what I was doing, Chrom."

"...Damn it Robin, your plan was extremely risky, especially considering only you and Shulk were in on it..." The blue haired male laughed, still holding onto Sumia. "You really are the greatest tactician in the realm." Before anything else could be said, there was a loud growl from Grima as she returned to her feet.

"You... imbeciles!" She raged. "How dare you double cross me! I was willing to play nice, but now you've made me angry! Screw keeping any of you alive! I will kill you all and claim my rightful prize as a Risen!" The Fell Dragon then screamed at the top of her lungs as she used all the power she had to start attacking the Shepherds with needles of dark magic, jabbing them through walls and ruining the structure of the building just so she could collapse it upon the Ylisseans if she failed to actually run them through with the needles themselves.

"Everybody, get out of here!" Robin shouted, pointing toward the entrance that they had come in through. Thankfully, they were close enough to that tunnel that it didn't take much effort to start making a break for it. Shulk had taken the Monado off his back and was using his weapon to slice through debris so that they fell harmlessly to the sides instead of directly atop people to crush them. As for the dark needles themselves, none managed to spear through any of the Shepherds in such a way that they were unable to continue the escape. Many of them were deflected by weapons or magic from doing considerable damage. Despite the fact that Grima was doing her best to slay the heroes of Ylisse, her efforts had failed to do so. Now they were all on their way out of the Dragon's Table, not wishing to stay any longer now that they had Sumia in tow.

* * *

It took several minutes to get out of the building and far enough away that they felt Grima wouldn't pursue. Still no casualties, and both Sumia and Shulk were in the group. Robin's strategies had really shone through today. Everybody hurried over to the tactician to give their congratulations for the success of the mission. Sure, they still needed to get back to Ylisse, but that was going to be far easier than anything else accomplished today.

Now that the Shepherds were all safe, Robin knew he could rest easy. It was for that reason that his adrenaline gave out and his eyes changed color from brown to an empty gray. At the same time, he collapsed into the sand, to the shock of everybody around him.

"Robin!" Chrom shouted, lifting his friend out of the sand and immediately noticing that his eyes hadn't closed, but merely just changed color so that they looked lifeless. "Robin! You can't be dead! Not after all that! We made it out of there without any casualties!" Shulk quickly knelt down on the other side of the tactician in order to see if his boyfriend was all right. After a moment of examination, the seer slowly shook his head.

"...He's not dead." He said calmly. "He's merely gone into a temporary shutdown due to the amount of damage that has been done to his body, between the damage done by my sword as well as that Expiration spell he took from Grima, not to mention the stress of everything that happened. If you look closely, he's breathing very slowly. Robin is alive, but he needs to be fixed up if we want him to wake up again."

"How do you suppose we do that?" Ricken asked, standing next to Shulk as he tried to find the sign that the blond had given that the ivory haired male was still alive. It was barely noticeable, but Robin was indeed still breathing. "I don't think we have technology like what's been used to make up his new body here, after all..." After that, Shulk gave a deep sigh and stood up.

"...I have to bring him back to the Super Smash Bros Mansion." He said firmly. "Robin is a Mechon - the technology he needs to have a fully functioning body once more exists on the opposite titan to my own home, Mechonis. However, the technology we have back at the mansion should be enough to sustain him long enough to make an attempt to get materials from Mechonis to fix him. If he's kept here on this world, he will probably die very quickly due to the lack of technology necessary to maintain his body while in this shutdown mode. In other words... We should hurry back to Ylisse, for Robin's sake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4909 words. I am sooo sorry for the lack of updates for a while. I got really sick with a bad cold and a sinus infection as well as I got Xenoblade Chronicles X and I've been devoting lots of time to that game. Heck, you might see some references to that game in this series of stories sometime in the future. ;) Anyway, notes:
> 
> 1\. I'm aware Vaike and Ricken don't have a support in Awakening, but I just wanted to group them together in this story because they both play similar roles here (as characters rather than units, I mean).
> 
> 2\. Yes, I'm making fun of the fact that Shulk has an actual projectile attack (several, in fact) that he just doesn't use in Smash. I can understand why they wouldn't make one of his special attacks be a Monado Art like Monado Purge or Monado Cyclone, but why not use Stream Edge, which is his only non-Monado Art that has some range to it?
> 
> 3\. So yeah, seeing as Robin's down and out until he gets repaired, the next story's not going to revolve around Shulk and Robin as heavily thanks to this. Look forward to seeing more characters in the limelight in the next story!
> 
> The next chapter's going to be more of an epilogue than an actual chapter, so it's going to be a bit on the short side. Hopefully it will be enough of a wrap up though!


	8. A Machine's Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin has fallen into a temporary shutdown after taking far too much damage with his machine body. Realizing there's no way to save Robin by staying on his world, it's time for Shulk to leave Ylisse and head back to the Super Smash Bros mansion and start making plans to go out to Mechonis in order to scavenge materials for new parts to replace Robin's busted up body.

The triumphant trek back to Ylisse with Queen Sumia in the safe hands of the Shepherds had been disrupted by the fact that the brave tactician who had led them to victory against the Fell Dragon's vessel had collapsed into the sand, having shut himself off due to the amount of stress on his body as well as the immense damage that had been done to the machine parts of his body. Robin's motionless body was carried through the Plegian desert in Vaike's arms, as he was one of the few strong enough to carry the white haired male's heavy machine body with little difficulty. Before they got moving, Chrom made sure to close Robin's eyes, as it was a bit discomforting to have his empty gaze staring out at nothing. At the same time, doing so made it look like the tactician was already dead, and the Exalt couldn't bear to look at his white haired friend afterward.

What should have been a joyous party after the first night of going through the desert following the Shepherds' victory was instead a relatively quiet affair. Even though everybody was sure that the opposite was true, they acted like a raucous hootenanny would awaken the sleeping Mechon. Therefore, everybody sipped their alcohol slowly and reticently, and nobody ordered seconds. Shulk couldn't even finish his glass of liquor and stormed out of the mess hall tent halfway through his ration. Albaer wondered if he could have the rest of the Homs' drink, to which everybody else gave a nasty glare. Gaspar the Sorcerer tried to scare the Berserker into cleaning up his act by telling him that the magenta-eyed boy's mead was likely cursed now that Shulk had drunk out of it, considering he had a curse on him from Grima. Albaer was not convinced, but he retracted his inquiry anyway.

While that was going on, the Monado wielder had hurried back to the tent where Robin's body lay dormant. Shulk practically threw himself onto the tactician's body, grasping the other's metal frame tightly in his arms. He just felt so bad that everybody was celebrating while Robin was laying in his own tent, likely suffering in silence due to the amount of pain he was surely in after being zapped by the Monado, withstanding enemy attacks in the Dragon's Table, and then taking a nearly fatal blow from Grima's Expiration spell. All of that plus the general stresses of living had more than likely taken its toll. Shulk continued to hug Robin's body as he reached out and kissed the tactician on the lips for a second. They were still warm, seeing as the ivory haired mage was still alive, even if barely so. He couldn't help but feel bad for stealing a kiss from the older male's unconscious body after the fact, considering Robin would have wanted to be awake to feel the lips of the man he loved brush against his own. Robin had expressed desire for a passionate make out session once everybody was safe back home in Ylisse, after all. It was just a quick smack, but it still made Shulk feel bad. He rest his head against the cyborg's shoulder, gently whispering into his ear as he kept holding on.

"...Robin, I'm so sorry..." He sighed quietly. "I have a feeling deep down you can hear me, and I want you to know that I refuse to let you die again. I'm going to do whatever it takes to fix you up so you don't have to suffer anymore. I'll storm Mechonis on my own if I have to do so to get the parts to fix you." Shulk didn't realize it, but tears were rolling down his cheeks and soaking into the Grandmaster robe Robin was still wearing. "I don't want to lose you... I want to stay by your side for years and years to come. I'm sure you feel the same way... don't you?" A rhetorical question, as clearly there wouldn't be an answer given. Shulk was almost certain that if Robin was awake, he would have probably thrown his arms around the Homs and squeezed him with all his Mechon strength. After all, he was the one to suggest a make out session back when the two of them were searching for the rest of the Shepherds alongside Chrom and the two princesses. Surely Robin was as deeply in love with Shulk as the opposite was true, perhaps even more so if he brought up something so passionate in the first place.

"...I had a feeling this is where I would find you." A familiar voice spoke softly just then, causing Shulk to gasp and turn toward the entrance to the tent. Sure enough, standing there was none other than the blue haired Exalt. "You really care about Robin, don't you? There's no need to answer, I can tell." After that, Chrom walked further into the tent and started pacing about, chuckling to himself. "You know, I was really worried about Robin for the longest time. I thought he would never find true love again after his wife died by his own miscalculations. He really adored her, after all..." Finally, the king sat down on the other side of Robin and looked at his unconscious cyborg friend. "He almost hung up his tactician robe for good that day. In fact, I wanted him to do so. However, he realized that tactics were the one thing in this world that still made him happy. That was why he continued to fight as a Shepherd even after losing his wife. And yet... I still never thought he was truly happy. Not until this past adventure. Whenever he was fighting by your side, I could see his eyes glowing with health."

"You are aware that I'm the reason Robin's body is even like this to begin with, yes?" Shulk chimed in, eyes focused on Chrom. "We had a row and I got so mad at him for being insensitive about my people that I moved out of our room. We had all but broken up as a couple, and he desperately wanted me back. He went out to my world despite the danger in order to get one of my favourite items as a gift. But... he ended up getting killed before he could get back to the mansion. We're both fortunate the leader of Mechonis decided to make a Mechon out of his body rather than let him rot."

"Do you regret Robin becoming a Mechon?" Chrom asked slowly, not sure if he was dancing around a dangerous topic for the Homs. Shulk's eyes darted to the floor in his melancholy.

"I regret it immensely." He said with a sigh. The resulting wince from the Exalt was almost audible. "Robin hates this body. He's mentioned more than once that he would rather be dead than a Mechon. And yet... I don't regret it at the same time. Grima once said that I was everything Robin was, but better. Now that he's a Mechon, he's certainly unique. Not only that, but I'm sure Robin likes his new abilities as a Mechon a lot more than he lets on. He would fly around all day on his drones if you gave him the chance. Not only that, but he's the reason the three of us are even sitting here right now." Chrom perked up instantly at that realization.

"Oh yeah. You have a point." He said. "It was Robin's drones that saved us three from captivity in the Dragon's Table. If he was still fully human, we would have been done for. He and I would likely be dead and you would be groveling at Grima's feet as her slave. Not a fitting end for any of us." Shulk shook his head slowly.

"All three of us might have ended up losing our freedom to her the other day." The blond swordsman said quietly. "If she didn't enslave you outright, she would do so after transforming you into a Risen. Same for Robin. He saved us just by being a Mechon, really."

"Yeah..." Chrom sighed. "Somehow I get the feeling that Robin will be doing more heroics in the future, and eventually he'll realize just how useful it is being half machine and start appreciating his body more."

"I just have to fix him so he can do more heroics in the future first." Shulk rested his head upon Robin's shoulder again. "I'm sure I can do it, I just need the right materials."

"And we'll bring you back to Ylisse as soon as possible so you don't have to worry about our primitive technology resulting in his death. I want Robin to survive as much as you do, after all."

"Thank you, Chrom. I suppose I should get some rest now."

"I take it you'll be staying here with Robin then?"

"Yes, I will. I don't want to leave his side, even if he's not going anywhere."

"All right, take care." And with that, Chrom stood up and took his leave. Shulk then settled down to sleep after setting Robin aside.

Neither Chrom nor Shulk were aware that Robin heard every word that was spoken around him and had internalized all their praises silently. If he had the capacity to do so right now, he would have reactivated his body and hugged the Monado wielder, immensely thankful for everything that was said.

* * *

The march back to Ylisse was expedited, as to make sure that Robin would make it back to the mansion in a reasonable amount of time. Everybody picked up the pace for the tactician's sake. Before Shulk left Ylisse with Robin in tow, Sumia called the Monado wielder aside to personally thank him for what he and Robin had accomplished.

"I'm very grateful that you and Robin helped the Shepherds get me back." The queen stated with a smile. "May you forever be known as an honorary Shepherd and a hero by the people of Ylisse, and we wish to see you again once things have calmed down with Grima." Shulk bowed his head before giving a response.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." He replied. "I am glad that you returned unharmed. Ylisse as a whole seems to have calmed down now that you've returned, really. I can tell that these people love you very much." Sumia giggled in response to the praise she was given.

"The people of Ylisse are wonderful people, indeed." The brunette stated. "Their loyalty to Chrom is nearly unmatched... Though I'm sure your loyalty to Robin is even more dedicated. I'm so happy he has you." Shulk couldn't help but blush a little in response to that while scratching at the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Come come, that's hardly a fair comparison..." He gushed. "Though you are correct that I love him dearly. And it is for that reason that I must depart from Ylisse posthaste. I would love to stay longer, but that wouldn't be conducive to Robin's health. Therefore, I must bid you goodbye." With that, he gave a short gesticulation before leaving the room, with Sumia waving while he did so. The next stop was the mansion.

 

Robin was set down in his and Shulk's room, laying gently upon the bed where he normally slept after being set there by Shulk. He wanted Robin to rest as easily as possible while he was still shut down. After doing so, the Monado wielder found his way to Master Hand's room, where he informed the disembodied glove about what happened and what would need to be accomplished in order to save him.

"So you're telling me that you need to go to Mechonis to find metal strong enough to forge into new armor and prostheses for Robin because he busted up his old armor saving you?" Master Hand asked incredulously.

"The proof is in my eyes!" Shulk shot back, a determination sparkling in the red rings surrounding his pupils. "I'm cursed! Had it not been for Robin, I wouldn't be standing before you now!" The glove tapped on his desk a couple times idly as he took everything in.

"Well, it's hard to deny the fact that your eyes are a different color now." He said. "You're going to definitely need to wear contacts to maintain the illusion that your eyes are still blue if you want to still participate in the tournament."

"Very well, I'll do it." The seer's magenta eyes leered slightly as he assumed the proprietor of the mansion was dodging the issue. "I'm more concerned about Robin, though. I need to go to Mechonis to get the metal he needs." Master Hand gesticulated a thumbs down.

"Sorry, but you said it yourself - you're cursed." He replied. "Because of that, you're not allowed to leave the mansion. Not until we determine exactly what your curse entails. I'll get some other Smashers to go to Mechonis on your behalf to get what you need. Just tell them what to find and I'll give sanction." Shulk facepalmed and groaned into his hand. He should have watched his wording. Now Robin's health lay in the hands of others because the Monado wielder was on house arrest. Sure, the other Smashers were perfectly capable fighters who could probably take on the Mechon with few difficulties, but something about the whole circumstance still bothered him. There was nothing to do now but specify the mission objectives to whomever would be heading to Mechonis on his and Robin's behalf and pray to the Bionis for his friends' success and safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished with 2271 words. Told you this chapter would be short. There's the reason the next story won't be revolving so much around Shulk, unless you guys would like to read a fic about him moping around the mansion worrying his head off while other people go do his work for him. Yeah, I thought not. There will still be parts in the next story revolving around Shulk, but he's being relegated to a minor character. And obviously Robin's out completely due to being in shutdown. Anyway, note time.
> 
> 1\. If I had to give a support rank to Chrom and Shulk by this point in the continuum, they would definitely be at a solid B Support. They're definitely friends, but they're not so chummy that I would call it an A Support yet. Shulk and Robin, on the other hand, are as close to an S Support as possible without actually being in an S Support relationship. ~~An A+ Support, if you will.~~
> 
> 2\. As seen in Obsidian Chains from when Samus and Pikachu were allowed to go to Bionis to save Shulk from dying to Obsidian Face, Master Hand can allow people to go to restricted worlds with special permission. It's this power that he's going to be giving to whomever is put on responsibility for getting the materials for Robin's rebuilding. There will be more details about the mission in the next story.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and see you in the next tale!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hearts in His Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5229737) by [Ryeaugla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla)
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